Suing a school for negligence

[roundandroundabout]

A playground mum has told me that I shouldn't send my DD to the local (ofsted outstanding) primary because she sued them for losing her DD (the child has sen and wandered out of the gates). I've googled the name of the school but nothing comes up. If this were true wouldn't it be public knowledge? And AIBU for ignoring and still planning to send my child there?

It’s not outwith the realms of possibility, I’ve known it happen to multiple families and have witnessed a not to dissimilar situation myself where I had to step in to prevent a child being left outside after break time as staff hadn’t noticed him.

Plus the parents may have had to agree to a non disclosure as part of their settlement so may not have been able to speak publicly about it.

I would imagine that if this is true they've probably put things in place to prevent recurrence, so no, it probably wouldn't put me off.

Perhaps it is true, children have wandered away from schools before. I do doubt that she sued the school. I wouldn’t write them off even if it had happened. If it happened the once, there’s no way they’d allow it to happen again

I've know this to have happened In a school local to me. It wasn't gossip it was from the school governor.

If they settled out of court it wouldn’t be public knowledge. Even if it went all the way to trial it would only be reported on if it was particularly scandalous. Otherwise you may be able to find a case report, though they aren’t always published.

It could well have happened and it shouldn't have but I don't think I would judge a school on one incident. Fair enough like I said shouldn't have happened as not ideal. But I'm sure they have learnt from their mistakes. Recently a sen child escaped by my children's school (my children actually have additional needs too but never tried to escape thankfully). The child in question is a very good climber and escaped from climbing over a tall fence at play time. They noticed immediately and went to get him. I wouldn't judge the school on it.

Also, sometimes things come up on ofsted reports. A local nursery to me has an ofsted report that a child (also with sen) was left outside very briefly on their own without supervision as they couldn't get him in. Again not ideal but I'm sure they have learnt from their mistakes again.

Anyone can sue. Doesn't mean they won, or were even justified in doing so.
Anyone can say they've sued, too.

My son (SEN, hated the school and habitual escapee) got out of the playground once at his old primary school during lunchtime play. It certainly didn’t make it to even the local papers. I didn’t sue them but I was very, very pissed off given the circumstances that I won’t go into.

No reason why it would be public knowledge in fact it is not likely to be. Ever. Reason being it concerns kids. Not saying I agree with this but that is how it is.

Complaints procedures important but difficult.
Once you have gone through internal ones only then you get to Ofsted. And they are kind of toothless.
So you need to think sideways.

As staff, my worst nightmare, but yes, it happens...not that rare an occurrence across schools. Police and health and safety officers, as well as Ofsted and school governors would automatically be involved.

Have you googled for any local press reports?

I know of two brothers, age 4&5 who would scale the 6ft fence at school and go home. Turns out they lived next door to their gran and scaling the fence between their house and hers was how they visited each day. They thought it was quite normal!

You could ask the school, check out their safeguarding policies and ask for any lessons learnt from the incident.

There could be NDA about the details?

It may be true, but no doubt everything is confidential so it won’t get to newspaper

However that is one woman’s thoughts and ihave no doubt if she told you she will have mentioned it to other parents at the time, who are probably still sending their kids there with no issues

I would also suggest if they regularly loose children they wouldn’t be outstanding

I would still send my child there

Essentially you need to chose based on all the information
If this is a deal breaker, don't go.If on balance you still want child to attend,go there.

If this happened other parents whose DC were at the school at the same time would know about it. Happened at my DC school, gates & policies were changed quite quickly as a result. I’d ask around.

Ask school abut it, surely safeguarding were involved. Ofsted? If resolved ok, if hushed up not ok.

It happens. Ive known a few kids who were runners

Presumably after the school was sued (allegedly), they tightened up their supervision of certain children.

If you have seen the school and think it is suitable for your DC, I wouldn't change my mind. Are schools having open days this year - presumably you could word a question carefully to assess how things might have changed?

I would still send my child there.

You’ve only heard about this incidence from one parent, and you don’t know the facts. Maybe ask around and see if any other parents know about the incidence. A child going missing and a parent suing the school would be big news amongst parents.

It’s possible that this happened, but if it did it’s not an automatic indicator that the school is rubbish. Focus on what you like about them.

Did she remove her child from the school?

At least some details (like who sued who) of civil court cases are normally public but they don’t necessarily get published to the Internet so that they’d turn up on google.

Assuming the story is true (which is what you seem to be wanting a search to verify) most likely, they didn’t actually sue but had a solicitor write a letter and start the process and then the school settled. This is what happens the vast majority of times someone claims to have sued. This would not be in the public record and I don’t think there is any way for you to verify that it happened unless you can get the person who “sued” to show you the settlement letter or the like.

I don’t think, even if true, that it’s a reason to refuse to consider the school. Better to see how things are now as they will likely have changed procedures (and possibly attitudes) since.

My children go to a little village school. Next to the main road.

One of the infant children decided to walk home. A driver brought her back to school, not before she’d walked a mile down the road.

It worried me, but school quickly changed policies and installed new gates.

Talk to the school about it.

We had an ‘escapee’ pre Covid from our school.
The child in question is 8 and has SEN and she has to be watched constantly. She has a brilliant 1-2-1 TA who has a very difficult job. The child went to the toilet and the TA was standing outside waiting as usual. A boy was walking down the corridor and suddenly collapsed so the TA obviously ran to him and shouted for help. It was a matter of perhaps 30 seconds but the SEN child managed to escape from the toilets, run all the way around the perimeter of the playground and straight out of the gate (which is electronically locked but had just been buzzed open due to a visitor coming through).
The child was found promptly and brought back into school.
As a result, the already stringent safeguarding measures were increased and the school is now safer than ever.
I would have no qualms about sending my child there.
However, when you hear things on the grapevine in the playground the facts get distorted as people love to scaremonger.
If you are concerned you could ask to speak to the headteacher directly to ask about safeguarding measures. They may not go into detail about the specific incident but you will get a feel for how seriously they take these things.

Anyone can try and sue but if no foreseeable loss or harm occurred they aren’t going to get very far.

Why not ask the school about security?