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A Supreme Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a teacher whose shoulder was broken when he was attacked by ninth grade students.
Desmond Darville, an art teacher at S C McPherson Junior High, was injured after students pelted him with drink bottles while taunting him with gay slurs on May 30, 2016.
Several days before the attack, the students had teased Darville for “wearing a dress” at Junior Junkanoo.
Darville alleged that the Minster of Education and the Attorney General were negligent by failing to provide a safe workplace. He argued that the incident could have been prevented if security officers had been stationed at the school’s lunch pavilion, an area known for violence.
Due to pain and weakness in his arm caused by the injury, Darville can no longer make extra money by teaching art, pottery and interior design.
According to the lunch vendor who witnessed the incident, students fought in the area frequently, and had previously broken into a stall and stolen knives.
But Senior Justice Indra Charles ruled that the government was not liable for Darville’s injuries because the attack was not reasonably foreseeable.
She noted that previous attacks at the lunch pavilion had occurred between students. Before that, there had been only one incident of a student attacking a teacher and it didn’t happen at the lunch pavilion.