Accidents at School

Going to school is part of growing up.  Almost all of us will have attended school during our younger years and some may in fact have children who are currently in education.  Love it or hate it we all know that going to school is or was essential to our futures.  After all, it helps educate us in so many different ways.  Not only do we get to learn the basics of science or the beginnings of history, we also learn how to interact with different people who may come from all sorts of different backgrounds.  In some cases it may be through school that we meet friends who remain so for the rest of our life.  Indeed, some people will look back at their school years with much joy and be able to reminisce about all those funny events or when ‘Mr so-and-so did that’.  Although some of us may have been unfortunate to have been involved in one of these not so uncommon playground scuffles, or have hurt themselves falling over in the playground, for many of us going to school will have been an injury free experience.  However, here at The Injury Lawyers, we are hearing more and more of accidents at schools.  It would seem that this is an environment in which children are unfortunately getting injured through no fault of their own.  In fact, it was only yesterday that I read on the BBC News website of twelve pupils being injured whilst at school and that seven had obtained compensation for their injuries.

BBC News reports that twelve teenagers in a Kent school were injured when part of a heating system collapsed onto them. The BBC claims that the victims were doing examinations in the sports hall when they began to hear funny noises, and shortly after, part of the heating system fell from the ceiling.  It has since been stated that the wires keeping the heating apparatus aloft had been faulty.  As a result the unlucky teenagers suffered injuries to several body parts including their neck, head and back.  In fact, one pupil, Rhys Sullivan, had to have metal plates inserted into his jaw which had been broken in two places as a result of the accident.  According to the solicitor who has represented seven of the twelve children, settlements have been reached, but settlement figures were not to be released.

It goes to show that accidents can occur to anyone at anytime, and in a whole host of places.  If you have a child that has been injured when at school, he/she may be entitled to compensation.  Whether the child has sustained injury when taking part in lessons, or has sustained injury during their lunch period, they may be in line to be compensated. It is important that you seek the advice of a professional and quality injury lawyer who can advise you as to whether a claim exists.

One final thing:  With injuries sustained at school, the person sustaining the injury is in all likelihood going to be a child.  This is not to say that they cannot claim compensation, but instead to say that any compensation they do receive will normally be kept in court held trust fund until they are 18 years old.  It is also important to know that a child can bring a claim anytime up to three years after their 18^th birthday.