SCHOOL DISTRICT VIOLATED ITS OWN POLICIES IN THAT REGARD
J.B. filed a lawsuit under the state’s Child Victims Act (see CPLR 214-g) against the Monroe-Woodbury Central School District alleging that she had been sexually abused by a doctor that had been employed by the District.
Apparently, this physician was entrusted with performing medical examinations of students who wished to engage in athletic activities.
After the Orange County Supreme Court declined to grant the District’s motion which sought to have a part of the case dismissed, an appeal followed.
And on its review of the record, the Appellate Division, Second Department, thought the evidence did not warrant a different result. Apparently, given the District’s duty of care owed to its students, over whom it had “physical custody and control,” it was required to act as a “reasonably prudent parent,” and guard (among other things) against “foreseeable harm.”
In this instance, since leaving a child alone (behind closed doors) with the doctor violated the District’s own policies, and its own witnesses testified that such conduct was “inappropriate,” the AD2 concluded that the District had failed to establish entitlement to dismissal of the claims and left the outcome undisturbed.
Think the District wished they could have doctored that?
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DECISION