In a legal decision in Florida involving the death of 2 children, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled a school board is not legally responsible for choosing a bus stop location that required the children to cross a busy street. The Court reasoned, “the dangers of the busy roadway are apparent”.
This raises the question of whether a child can understand the dangers of a busy roadway.
The Court also concluded the school board did not have the responsibility for the safety of a child “while he was crossing the street” to get to a bus stop chosen by the school board. So, does the school board owe a duty of care to a child before or after they cross a busy street to access their bus stop?
As a child, I saw a classmate lose his life when he was hit by a school bus. A simple change to the location of the bus stop could have saved this child’s life.
The school board assumes responsibility for the negligence of its employees, but now the law in Florida is the school board bears no responsibility for knowingly forcing children to cross busy roads every day to get to the bus.
Notably, the Court dismissed this case before it went to a jury, preventing a jury from deciding if the school board should bear responsibility.
