Duty of Care and Student Safety
Principals and teachers are held to a high standard of care in relation to students. Their duty of care requires principals and teachers to take all reasonable steps to reduce risk, including:
- Provision of suitable and safe premises,
- Provision of an adequate system of supervision,
- Implementation of strategies to prevent bullying,
- Ensuring that medical assistance is provided to a sick or injured student.
This duty is non-delegable and cannot be assigned to another party.
Whenever a teacher-student relationship exists, teachers have a special duty of care. This has been expressed as: “a teacher is to take such measures as are reasonable in the circumstances to protect a student under the teacher’s charge from risks of injury that the teacher should reasonably have foreseen.” (Richards v State of Victoria).