Advice on thinking about suing my child’s school.

[questio]

My primary aged child was in school, walked past an interactive white board which had extremely sharp edges and it sliced in between his fingers, resulting in him having to go to the ER and having it glued and steri stripped and now bandaged up. He’s an elite dancer with a huge show coming up in 10 days, he tried training the evening after the accident but his wound split back open and he had to have it redone. He has been told no dancing for at least two weeks while it heals, this has really upset him, the thought of not being able to participate in a dance show he’s been training 12 hours a week + for the last 4 months has really put a dampener on his spirit. I emailed and asked the school to see the risk assessment on this whiteboard as why is it in a kids classroom if it’s that sharp. I didn’t get a reply email but the head rang me instead, saying they have removed it from the class room and contacted the company it’s from to return it as they were not aware it had sharp edges underneath. She was very apologetic and said they now have put the old one from the library in its place which has been checked and no sharp edges or any way to be a risk to injury and hopes this has reassured me.
Im not one to think about suing, I’ve never claimed against anything before but I’m considering speaking to some one, as this should have never happened in the first place. I’ve worked in schools and we risk assessed every item in that classroom before hand.
Yes I’m aware making a claim will not make my child’s hand heal any quicker and able him to get on that stage to complete his dance routine, but I feel more should of been done to prevent this from occurring and now because of their negligence I’m out of pocket due to dance subs and any dance moms will understand how expensive dance costumes, theatre tickets and all else that comes with it will understand.

any thoughts

It's a small cut. Kindly, if sustaining a small hand injury 2 weeks before a major competition is enough to prevent him from entering then I can't see how you would expect him to have the kind of resilience and grit that it takes to compete at an "elite" level in any sport. This could be an important lesson for him in determination.

He's a dc, they get everywhere you know.

Your description of events doesn't make sense.

You say he walked past it, the Head Teacher says they've removed it because the underneath edge is sharp and they weren't aware of that.

So your son must have walked along the whiteboard running his hand along the underneath of the bottom edge.

Why?

Why was he messing with the board at all? It isnt the kind of action that would be needed in standard use of the device, and he sounds like a fit and able child so I assume he wasn't using for stability as something to lean on.

Unless he has a reasonable reason for touching the board in that way, it will not be possible to assign any blame to the school for this accident.

Those pesky smart boards, always jumping out and the slicing fingers of children innocently just 'walking past' 😂🤦‍♀️

Don't be ridiculous OP...your son shouldn't be touching the smart board AT ALL!! My class of 30 seven year olds manage perfectly well 'walking past' mine 100s of times a day, and not ONE of them has suffered a sliced finger as a result..because guess what? THEY DON'T TOUCH IT! 🙄

Having had a family member who more or less lost a limb in a workplace accident and sued - I don’t think you’ll get far with a cut hand that has no lasting impact on function. At least not in the UK. It will be a lengthy, stressful, costly process and any compensation would be minimal.

Elite Dancer - what sort - I would argue for rehearsals and training should be possible to work round that injury. Ask at the GPs for a better type of dressing to keep it together etc. Unless he is doing gymnastics and lifting it shouldn't be effected. And to be honest he is in primary! Bit of perspective here. AND what was he doing messing about with the white board? dont get cuts just running your hand along like that normally?

I would say you are being ridiculous - life happens he is a child at primary age loves his dance but injuries happen all the time and need to be able to handle that or you get no where in the dance world

ex contemporary dancer who missed out from broken ankles, wrist sprains and ganglion steriod injections aged a bit older than primary but still u18. There is plenty of time yet

Bit of a side issue but what exactly is an 'elite dancer' please? Is it ballet, tap, ballroom, street or hip-hop kind of thing?
And what's the definition of elite? DC are grown but while at school one used to play rugby for his county. Would that make him an elite player? Or would it be more like for an England junior squad eg under 16s. Just after a bit more info for context.

What extra cost or money have you lost from the accident?

Yes, so this is what is known as a natural consequence.

It’s an accident - they happen. With any luck it will heal adequately for him to take part. If you were to sue and you’re in the UK you’d have to prove your loss, so you’d get at best your dance subs? In exchange for causing the school a whole load of hassle & legal costs? Not worth it.
PS… a mum at our school tried to sue because her little darling got a black eye from a ball - it meant ball games were totally banned at playtime (making her dc very unpopular) and gave school a load of hassle they prob didn’t need. Not only did her case go nowhere but all the other parents found out and gave her a wide berth from then on!!

I’ve been a health and safety governor at a school. Volunteer on top of my job. We audited every class room with a walk around a few times per year and tried to pick up every trip hazard, loose nail, hot pipe that needed covering etc but clearly they missed something.

Is it a private school? If so I can see why you’d want some money back.

If it’s a state school, I can’t believe you would even consider this. You’re just taking money from other children, families and other areas of school budgets. Schools already do their best for health and safety within the limits of their capacity. Don’t kid yourself that suing will make any difference. It’s just greed. If you want to make a difference and improve the school maybe volunteer as a governor instead. Try giving more rather than taking more from an already stressed system.

I hope your child makes a full recovery. It’s very disappointing for them but it could have been a stomach bug or something else.

Oh goodness, accidents happen. You can't wrap your child up in bubble wrap for life. Teach him to be resilient and to roll with the punches, rather than blaming others for minor accidents. Its not going to help the wound heel more quickly, is it? The school has been responsive...I'm not sure what else you want? You suing them (apart from being ridiculous) would presumably take resources from the school...which would ultimately impact your child anyway.

You’d be suing the manufacturer rather than the school I think. But I have no idea what you would be suing for, as neither of your have financial losses from it, now or in the future and the incident seems unlikely to have caused him serious psychiatric damage.

Looking at that injury your son was touching the whiteboard which kids are generally not allowed to do. The school have removed it as they should do. I am sorry your son got hurt but suing the school is ridiculous. It was an accident and I suspect one they will argue was caused by your child touching the board.

What fur? Emotional trauma about missing a performance? My young daughter had the tip of her finger sliced off my a door closing on a ferry. It required surgery and was extremely traumatic (especially as my DH had very recently passed away and my six year old son's first question was is she going to die too). I did ask my insurance company about it (we missed our train and I had to stay in a hotel etc). They said nothing could be done about asking the ferry company to compensate (I was only wanting them to cover the hotel and new train tickets) as she would not be permanently affected and my expenses were below my excess. I still think the ferry company could have made a good will gesture. But all they did was send her a teddy.
The accident in your case shouldn't have happened and in my case arguably the ferry company was negligent (a door closing by its own weight should not be able to cut off a finger), but there are no grounds to sue.

My son had a head injury at school 16 months ago and is still suffering side effects now. I am not sure quite what we would sue for.

Missing the point (as the first post nailed it) but PMSL at the idea a primary school child is an "elite dancer"

Could he tape his fingers together whilst practicing to avoid agitating the wound? Obviously remove it when not needed

While I don't agree with the OP suing, (it was a minor accident with no long term damage, and I'm not convinced the child wasn't partly at fault) surely if she did, it wouldn't remove money from the school? They must have insurance for it, surely?

My son was involved in a very serious accident when he was 18 months old. He was in and out of hospital for a month. He now has life-long medical implications. There was very clear evidence of negligence. It took six years of legal back and forth - many many many hours of my time in meetings with lawyers, Drs appointments, court dates at 9am that were a four hour drive away (I had to cover my own travel and hotel costs, couldn’t claim them back), my son had to miss school to attend court one day. He was awarded a five figure amount of compensation at the end of it, now sat in an ISA for him for when he turns 18. Was it worth six years of stress, probably not. If you want all of this for a cut finger go ahead, but I wouldn’t recommend it!

You say you would like advice? My advice would be to forget about this immediately and chalk it up as a life lesson for you son.

He has a cut. A cut that will be fine in a couple of weeks. Worst case scenario - a tiny scar between his fingers.

If his finger were chopped off, or there was life-long nerve damage, plus you could prove beyond doubt that the school acted negligently…….. a no win no fee lawyer might chat to you about your chances of suing. However a cut that meant he missed one dance competition, they will laugh at you. You aren’t out of pocket due to the accident, you paid that all out regardless.

In the uk, you sue for long lasting pain / suffering / loss of earnings/ additional expenses. It doesn't sound like any of these will be a factor so you'd not get very much. They've already taken actions to address the issue. I wouldn't.

@questio If you are in the UK, then I'm not sure what you could hope to achieve from suing the school because unless you used private healthcare or this show is somewhere out of town and you have paid to go already then there hasn't been any monetary loss. Even if you have paid for these things, legal fees will probably exceed the amount of compensation and there is no guarantee you would get these costs back (a court may well consider such costs disproportionate to your claim for example).

I think a better way to settle this would be to have a conversation with the school and have them apologise and confirm that they have taken measures to avoid a reoccurrence.

As for your child, if he's in primary school he might be good for his age but come on, he's not a professional yet! He's going to have plenty more opportunities and plenty more shows.

My thoughts are that it depends on the nature of the wound, how it heals and how it occured in the first place. It's absolutely not acceptable that an item used in a school has such sharp edges that it can easily cut a child. But I imagine the school has to buy from approved suppliers and the suppliers are supposed to meet certain standards. It's also a really odd injury to get from just walking past a white board. Was he running his hand along the edge when he got cut? Did he lose his balance and grab it for support? I think any claim would look at whether his actions contributed to the incident.

Whilst sueing may highlight where the gaps are in product suitability, I'm not sure what else it would achieve, other than costing you time, money and energy, and causing a lot of additional stress. That being said, is your child's injury likely to heal properly within a reasonable time frame? Will he be left with any deficits (unable to write properly, or grip things etc) that will effect his life moving forward? If the answer is yes then, yes, I think you should sue in order to recieve whatever support he needs to recover as well as he can and to compensate for his loss.

If the wound will heal, he won't be left with any medium or long-term damage and the only thing you are out is costs associated with this one dance recital (I appreciate you say they are expensive), then my thoughts are that sueing is a disproportionate response.

OP, you say that it should have been risk-assessed, but no risk assessment in the world can cover everything that a person might do to it. It’s the same with software testing - no tester in the world can replicate every human action.
I would personally write it off for what it was - an accident: one that has been examined and rectified immediately by the school.
Also - your son should have learned a few important lessons from this experience: that plans don’t always come to fruition, that accidents can happen and that he should proceed with caution before touching things that are designed to be written on, not stroked!

The school has responded appropriately to an accident. Suing them will not benefit you or your son and will be devastating for the school budget.
Your son didn’t acquire that injury just from walking past the board - he must have been touching it and probably shouldn’t have been.
Tape two fingers together while he practises and performs then the wound won’t open. It’s a minor injury and your reaction is ott.