Boy breaks grandmother's arm by accident

[Nimbostratus100]

I am not going to say what happened next and what I think until I have heard a few objective opinions on here

The facts of the case

12 year old boy in sports club, leaving the main entrance on his skateboard, which he has been told is not allowed in the building, knocks over the grandmother coming to collect another child. The grandmother has a broken arm and needed an operation

This is a fairly elite sports club, you need to be able to play to a certain standard to by allowed to join. This boy has played there for a year. No serious trouble, several minor reprimands. Reasonably good player. Turns up for the team probably 80-90% of the time.

This happened last weekend. The sports club is meeting tomorrow. The parents have just heard that this boy has/has not been expelled and will/will not be there.

What do you think should happen? why?

I am allocating the voting by a toss of a coin to be random!

YABU - the boy should be expelled
YANBU - the boy should not be expelled

also, what else should happen, as well as/ instead of being expelled?

Thank you

This was an accident. It was unexpected, unplanned, and without intention to harm.

Could it have been prevented - yes. As could almost all accidents however it is still an accident. Was the child reckless - yes and that recklessness in this case caused an accident. He could have skated out of there (and maybe has) 50 other times without any accident happening. Did he knock into her in the building or did it happen outside the doors? To a 12 year old, he may not have been breaking the rules if he jumped on it as he went out the door?

To what degree are 12 year olds expected to be good decision makers? I think expulsion is unnecessary. He needs to have consequnces - hopefully natural ones like he needs to help this woman with her yardwork for 4 hours every Saturday or whatever and his skateboard should be confiscated until he can use it more responsibly.

Ok so he was told that day not to skateboard. I think he should have a fixed term exclusion for 3 months or so.

Has he apologised?

I am going to make a cup of tea then come back and tell you what happened and what I think

I would say he possibly deserves a suspension with a very stern lecture and to write a letter of apology to the lady along with a nice bunch of flowers. It was an accident, a very serious one which was caused by the boys stupidity/laziness but still an accident.

Im sure if he is a half decent kid he’ll be mortified. If I was the woman I’d be upset about my arm but I wouldn’t want a child to be banned from his sports club because of an unfortunate accident. That is assuming of course he is contrite and apologises in the proper manner.

If we were talking in purely legal rules, the 'eggshell skull' rule would apply; basically, the victim's osteoporosis would be irrelevant; the defendant would still be liable for all the injury caused.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggshell_skull

@SnarkyBag but "he hit her hard enough to break her arm" sounds like there was great impact which, with underlying conditions, there may not have been. It's just that the end result was the arm being broken.

Yes, he still skateboarded, yes, he still lost control of it.

It was an accident. Yes he was in the wrong for being on his skateboard but it was still accidental. And OP is conveniently ignoring the question of how old granny is. Could be 45 or 95 or anywhere in between.

Middle aged woman (58) or elderly woman (78) would be lot more meaningful in terms of how serious this injury could actually be.

A broken arm may be more likely to be serious in the elderly but it can be serious at any age. I had an accident at 16 that was a result of someone's negligence and fractured my humerus. It's left me with nerve damage and chronic pain.

That could excuse so many things, the boy racer doing 80 mph in a 30 zone, he didn't intend to mow down the woman crossing the road, the drunk driver who caused a pile up didn't intend to do it. They broke the rules and should take their punishment as should this 12 year old.

What is the 12 year olds response to what he has done?

An injury of this sort is massive for an older person. There needs to be consequences for this behaviour which has potentially changed someone else's life and independence irreparably, depending on their age.

True.

Skateboarding inside a building isn't an unavoidable accident. I'm sure he didn't mean to injure anyone but the fact is he did as a result of careless behaviour that he'd been told not to do. I think I'd expect at least a suspension for that.

If Granny intends to make a compensation claim, its against the sport club, which had a duty of care to ensure public safety on its premises.

If the rules state skateboarding is banned then the club has been negligent in supervising and enforcing their own safety measures.

Was it entirely preventable? Of course, but then so are the vast majority of car accidents (not paying enough attention, going a bit too fast, not looking properly at a junction...)

And there would be a compensation claim from the injured person. Quite rightly.

He shouldn't be expelled. It was an accident.

I think bringing osteoporosis into it sounds like victim blaming. He shouldn't have been on his skateboard, if he'd done what he was told she wouldn't have a broken arm.

Why would he be expelled for an accident?

I’d imagine he’d get a bollocking from parents and club and be banned from tournaments for 3 months, or something like that while having to write a letter of apology, and if she’ll allow it, apologise face to face.

sorry, didn't realise it was a question, I would guess 70 - but she is still working, so maybe late 60s?

The accident happened because he ignored the rules. The rules are there to prevent accidents. Therefore the accident was preventable and he is responsible

But if I was driving my car through the shopping centre, it wouldn't be the same kind of 'accident' would it. I completely accept he did not mean to do it, so in that sense it was accidental, but it was not unforeseen and it happened while doing something he should definitely not have been.

Definitely punished but not expelled! That’s outrageous it was an accident

Does the ‘grandmother’ get asked what she thinks should happen to the boy? Grandmother is irrelevant, could be 30s-90s. I’m 51 but not a grandmother how would you have referred to me if he had knocked me down?

and so the punishment should be based on the skateboarding where you're not allowed to - not for the end result

I completely agree that there should be punishment in all the cases you've mentioned; indeed I even suggested a few alternative forms of punishment upthread.

However, if there was malicious intent - for instance someone who spots their ex on a zebra crossing and decides to mow them down - I would expect the punishment to be much harsher than someone who was 'merely' driving without due care and attention.

The accident was preventable. The rules about no skateboard was to prevent accidents. He chose to ignore the rule. The accident therefore was his fault.
You don't drive on the pavement. If you did and you had an accident I am assuming you would accept it was a preventable accident and your fault.