If your child is injured at a Nevada school, you may be able to bring a lawsuit against the school or school district. Damages that can be recovered in a lawsuit against a school district can include payment for medical bills as well as pain and suffering.
Common causes of lawsuits against Nevada school districts include (without limitation):
- Teacher misconduct,
- Premises liability violations,
- Failure to provide adequate security or medical assistance,
- Food poisoning,
- Bus accidents,
- Broken equipment, or
- Intentional acts such as bullying or sexual harassment by a teacher or other students.
To help you better understand lawsuits against educational institutions, our Nevada personal injury lawyers discuss:
- 1. Are Nevada schools liable for teacher/employee negligence?
- 2. What about intentional wrongful acts?
- 3. A School’s Duty of Care
- 4. Student Rights Violations
- 5. Title IX Discrimination
- 6. Damages
- Additional Reading
Schools are liable for their teachers’ negligence.
1. Are Nevada schools liable for teacher/employee negligence?
Under Nevada’s respondeat superior law, schools and their districts are liable for the negligent acts of employees within the scope of their employment.
A Nevada teacher is acting within the scope of their employment if:
- What they were doing occurred during business hours, and
- The actions were part of the employee’s regular job function.
Example: Mr. Masters is a science teacher with the Clark County public school district. While demonstrating a routine chemical reaction for his class, Mr. Masters accidentally uses the wrong chemical. The chemical explodes, burning several students. The school is liable because: 1) Demonstrating scientific principles falls within Mr. Masters scope of employment, and 2) Mr. Masters conducted the science experiment negligently.
Can Nevada schools claim sovereign immunity?
No. Normally, state governments generally have the right to claim “sovereign immunity” from lawsuits. Under NRS 41.032, Nevada waives sovereign immunity and, therefore, consents to be sued for negligence by its employees.
Public universities covered by Nevada’s sovereign immunity waiver include (without limitation):
- University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) (see our related article on suing UNLV for personal injury),
- Nevada State College, and
- College of Southern Nevada.
Public school districts in Nevada include (without limitation):
For more information, see the Nevada Department of Education, Nevada Schools and Districts Information.
Damage Cap on Negligence Lawsuits Against Schools
As a condition of Nevada’s sovereign immunity waiver, there is a $100,000 cap on damages for negligent acts by public employees. Additionally, victims of school employee negligence cannot recover punitive damages.1
However, if the educational institution is private, these limitations on damages do not apply.
Just as importantly, there is
- no cap on damages in the case of intentional wrongful acts by school employees and
- no limit to the amount of punitive damages that can be recovered for intentional wrongs.
However, as discussed below, there are limitations on when an educational institution can be held responsible for an employee’s intentional wrongdoing.
2. What about intentional wrongful acts?
Nevada schools are generally NOT liable for the intentional wrongful acts of their employees. However, a school district is liable for an employee’s intentional acts if the institution itself was negligent in hiring, retaining or supervising the employee.
A school or district commits negligent hiring, retention or supervision when:
- The school fails to conduct a reasonable background check of an employee;
- The school retains an employee after discovering the person is potentially unfit or dangerous;
- The school fails to train its employees how to prevent or deal with injuries; or
- The school fails to discipline or adequately supervise its employees.
Example: Several female eighth graders have complained about sexual harassment by their history teacher, Mr. Cole. The principal does nothing to reprimand him or to protect the students. Mr. Cole is later convicted of several acts of lewdness with a child under 16.
If the students decide to sue for the lewd acts, the school district should be held liable. The principal was on notice that Mr. Cole posed a danger to students. By retaining him as a teacher, the institution itself was negligent.
Common Lawsuits for Intentional Wrongful Acts at Nevada Schools
Common lawsuits for intentional torts at Las Vegas schools include:
- Sexual harassment or sexual assault by teachers,
- Bullying by teachers or personnel,
- Failure to prevent bullying or harassment by other students,
- Corporal punishment (assault and battery),
- Discrimination based on gender, gender identity or sexual identity in violation of Title IX (discussed below), and
- Intentional infliction of emotional distress.
3. A School’s Duty of Care
Premises Liability
Property owners in Nevada have a duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition. At an educational institution, this encompasses all property owned or used by it, such as:
- Classrooms,
- Cafeterias,
- Playgrounds,
- Restrooms,
- Walkways,
- Parking lots,
- Gyms, swimming pools and stadiums, and
- Offices.
Duty to Prevent Accidents
Schools in Las Vegas face lawsuits for accidents when an employee’s negligence results in:
- Slip-and-fall injuries,
- Food poisoning,
- Drowning accidents,
- Preventable sports injuries (including traumatic brain injury)
- Injuries from broken furniture, playground or gym equipment,
- Bus accidents during sporting events or field trips, or
- Any other reasonably foreseeable injury.
Special Duty of Care to Students (“In Loco Parentis”)
Nevada schools have a special legal duty to protect students as their own children. This duty of care arises under the legal doctrine of in loco parentis (“in the place of the parents”).
This special duty of care to your children includes the obligation to:
- Supervise students;
- Minimize foreseeable dangers to them;
- Ensure their safety;
- Prevent bullying; and
- Obey all Nevada laws and regulations, including those respecting minor children.
4. Student Rights Violations
Lawsuits against Nevada school districts can also arise when an educational institution violates your child’s constitutional right, such as:
- free speech,
- free exercise of religion, or
- freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Limitations on Mandatory Dress Codes
Mandatory dress policies are legally enforceable in Nevada schools as long as:
- They are viewpoint- and content-neutral,
- They advance important interests unrelated to the suppression of free speech, and
- They impose as minimal a restriction as possible on your child’s free expression.2
Example: A Las Vegas middle school’s dress code bans the wearing of shirts that show the midriff. The ban is most likely legal since it is gender-neutral and advances the institution’s policy of preventing sexual assault and harassment.
On the other hand, a ban against boys wearing make-up would not be enforceable. Such a ban would not be gender-neutral and would impose an unreasonable restriction on male students’ free expression.
Students’ Right to Free Speech
Schools may also not require your children to engage in or promote speech they or you find offensive. For example, your child is not required to:
- Wear a uniform containing a school motto.3
- Say the pledge of allegiance or salute the flag.4
Unreasonable Searches and Seizures
Schools in Las Vegas may not require your child to submit to searches of their person or property unless:
- The institution has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence of a violation of law or school rules;
- The search is reasonably related to the circumstances justifying the interference; and
- The search is appropriate in light of the age and sex of your child and the nature of the infraction.5
For instance, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld as reasonable the search of the purse of a student who was accused of smoking in the bathroom.6 However, requiring a student accused of drug possession to remove her clothes down to her underwear and then pull out the bands on her bra and underpants constituted an unreasonable strip search by the school.7
School districts have much deeper pockets than individual school teachers.
5. Title IX Discrimination
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs. It applies to all schools that receive federal funds for any purpose.
Wrongful acts prohibited by Title IX include (without limitation):
- Sexual assault by teachers;
- Sexual harassment by teachers;
- Discrimination based on gender;
- Discrimination based on transgender status or gender identity; or
- Discrimination based on sexual orientation.
To maintain an action for damages under Title IX, a student must prove that:
- A school policy violated Title IX, or
- An official of the school district with authority to institute corrective measures on the district’s behalf:
- Knew of a teacher’s misconduct,
- Had the power to end it, and
- Failed to do so.
6. Damages
If you or a child has been injured through a school’s negligence or intentional tort, you may sue for compensation for:
- Payment of medical bills and therapy,
- Lost earning capacity,
- Pain and suffering, and
- Other compensatory damages.
Additionally, if the act was intentional, you can request to recover punitive damages.
Additional Reading
For more in-depth information, refer to the following:
- Overcoming Legal Liability Concerns for School-Based Physical Activity Promotion – American Journal of Public Health.
- Culture Loss and Crumbling Skulls: The Problematic of Injury in Residential School Litigation – PoLAR.
- Legal Liability: The Consequences of School Injury – Journal of School Health.
- Preventing School Injuries – Rutgers University Press.
- Negligent liability lawsuits and public school personnel: Breach of duty and defense – Spalding University Dissertation.
Legal references:
- NRS 41.035; See also County of Clark ex rel. University. Medical Center v. Upchurch, 114 Nev. 749, 961 P.2d 754 (1998) (“Large jury awards could present a threat to the state treasury. A statutory cap on the damages the state must pay for its tortious conduct furthers a legitimate interest in protecting the state treasury.”).
- Jacobs v. Clark County School District 373 F.Supp.2d 1162 (2008).
- Frudden v. Pilling 526 F.3d 419 (9th Cir. 2014).
- West Virginia State Board Of Education v. Barnette 319 U.S. 624 (1943).
- New Jersey v. T.L.O. 469 US 325 (1985).
- Same.
- Safford Unified School District v. Redding 557 US 364 (2009).