23 y.o. claims compensation for injuries sustained in highschool (1 Viewer)

[whatashotbyseve]

IT WAS the last day of the school year when Katherine Read's year 7 English teacher told her students there would be no class and to "hang around the school and see what happens".

Not long after, the 12-year-old was lying on the floor of the girls' toilet block, having fallen from a height when a water bomb shattered a window she was standing behind during a muck-up day water fight at Parkes High School.

Ms Read is suing the Department of Education for negligence and breaching its duty of care by failing to recognise the "increased risks of horseplay" at the end of the school year.

Outside court Ms Read, who was supported by her mother Anna, said the first thing she remembered after the accident was lying on the floor with someone wiping blood from her face.

The Supreme Court heard Ms Read suffered brain, head and neck injuries and pain in her back from the fall in December 1998.

She had dropped out of school three years later, aged 16, as a result of ongoing cognitive problems, headaches and neck pain.

The 23-year-old is claiming damages for her injuries as well as for future economic losses. She argues that were it not for her injuries, she would have continued to year 12 and aimed to study marine biology at university.

Now unable to get a driver's licence or work more than 30 hours a week in her job at Woolworths, Ms Read claims to have missed out on a career singing country music, finding it difficult to remember the lyrics to songs and play guitar and piano.

Court documents allege the school was negligent in failing to provide structured activities for the students on the day of the accident and that students had been permitted to leave the grounds to buy water balloons.

The school was also allegedly negligent after teachers had failed to supervise or intervene during the water bomb activity which resulted in some girls having to take shelter in the female toilet block.

Ms Read was standing on top of a toilet seat, closing a window to protect herself and other girls from the water balloons being hurled at them by boys at the school when one of the balloons was thrown through the window, causing the glass to shatter and the window frame to crash on top of her head, court documents allege.

She had incurred significant medical expenses and would require continuing physiotherapy for her neck problems as well as psychological treatment, the court was told.

Omg like I was totally going to be a marine biologist, win seven golden guitars and become the lead singer of an international band. But then my life was like, totally destroyed man because a window shattered and a few drops of blood had to be wiped from my face.

Dumb bitch. This is why we pay massive insurance premiums. I thought the statute of limitations was 7 years anyway? I'm sure she knew this, but she like, totally forgot.

 

[withoutaface]

If she's got cognitive problems because of the incident then I'd say it's fairly clear the school's breached its duty of care...

 

[whatashotbyseve]

Perhaps, but surely suing for future economic loss is a little ridiculous?

 

[Graney]

Why is suing for future economic loss ridiculous?

The schools negligence directly caused her to lose future income. She should be compensated.

 

[squiresshane990]

parkes high school lol enough said. my sister lives 200m down the road lol

 

[katie tully]

hahahahahahahahahahah what

what
what
im going to find out who this is and their back story

 

[katie tully]

i say this because 99% of locals from this area are born with cognitive problems anyway. because their parents are cousins

 

[whatashotbyseve]

Why is suing for future economic loss ridiculous?

The schools negligence directly caused her to lose future income. She should be compensated.

Again perhaps, but on what criteria do you base her future income on? Her claims she would have gone to university, which is unlikely (65% of people don't) and became a marine biologist, or her more likely path of dropping out of school in year 10 and doing manual/unskilled labour?

Too many permutations in this story. Plus, we haven't even heard the schools response yet. And, if she cannot remember stuff, how can she remember the incident. Maybe she was in the toilets filling up water balloons too? /Denny Crane.

 

[Graney]

Again perhaps, but on what criteria do you base her future income on? Her claims she would have gone to university, which is unlikely (65% of people don't) and became a marine biologist, or her more likely path of dropping out of school in year 10 and doing manual/unskilled labour?.

Yeah, I'd suggest she should be compensated at the level that exists between how much work she's able to do now, and how much she would earn working full-time at the minimum wage for x number of years. Pay the gap so she receives equivalent of a full-time minimum wage income.

That's just for lost income compensation, she may be due other compensation for her injuries/treatment.

Too many permutations in this story. Plus, we haven't even heard the schools response yet. And, if she cannot remember stuff, how can she remember the incident. Maybe she was in the toilets filling up water balloons too? /Denny Crane.

That's for the court to resolve. Presumably there was already a criminal investigation, and the events have already been determined.

Even if she was filling up water balloons, duty of care is such, she's not considered to be of sufficient age to be responsible for her actions while under the schools care. Even if she was taking deliberate risks and placing herself in a risky situation, the school is still responsible, she wasn't of an age where she could reliably judge and avoid risk.

Just because she can't remember lyrics, doesn't mean she can't remember other things. Cognition isn't that simple. Regardless, what she can remember is irrelevant to the evidence, there'd be plenty of other reliable witnesses/evidence.

 

[Graney]

lol @ marine biology. If she had a bachelors degree in marine biology she'd probably be unemployed.


With respect to kwayera

 

[katie tully]

going on a recon mission to woollies later

and a country music singer?

 

[whatashotbyseve]

She practically had the world at her feet, didn't she?

 

[SnowFox]

Not long after, the 12-year-old was lying on the floor of the girls' toilet block, having fallen from a height when a water bomb shattered a window she was standing behind during a muck-up day water fight at Parkes High School.

Wait..Am i reading this sraight?
She Fell onto the floor of the Girls Toilet block when a water bomb shattered a glass window she was standing behind.

So essentially, a water bomb that must of been full of something solid shattered a window that caused to fall from a height.

WTF was she doing?

 

[CIV1501]

what

the water bomb (full of water) hit the window and broke it. she was standing on the toilet seat behind it. an exploshon of glass and water in your face does tend to put you off balance i assume. she fell off the toilet seat onto her head on the tiled or concrete floor, raping her head

what about that is hard to understand?

 

[Kwayera]

lol @ marine biology. If she had a bachelors degree in marine biology she'd probably be unemployed.


With respect to kwayera

Ah, but I don't (or won't) have a degree in Marine Biology - I will have a degree in Marine Science, with biology and geoscience majors and experience with GIS, which will make me infinitely more hireable

 

[Kwayera]

what

the water bomb (full of water) hit the window and broke it. she was standing on the toilet seat behind it. an exploshon of glass and water in your face does tend to put you off balance i assume. she fell off the toilet seat onto her head on the tiled or concrete floor, raping her head

what about that is hard to understand?

I'd say it's not so much a breach of care, rather that it was her own damn fault she was standing unsafely on a toilet seat, and she deserved everything she doesn't get.

But that's just me.

 

[whatashotbyseve]

Exactly. Why was she standing on a toilet seat? A good lawyer would eat this case alive. More holes in the plaintiff's story than swiss cheese.

 

[CIV1501]

She was standing on a toilet seat because she was an unsupervised 13yr old girl having water bombs thrown at her??


GIS is shit and anyone who does it is shit and wanna come work for us kway, we have a GIS position that hasnt been filled for 3 years. they pay money.

 

[SnowFox]

Exactly. Why was she standing on a toilet seat? A good lawyer would eat this case alive. More holes in the plaintiff's story than swiss cheese.

Ms Read was standing on top of a toilet seat, closing a window to protect herself and other girls from the water balloons being hurled at them by boys at the school when one of the balloons was thrown through the window, causing the glass to shatter and the window frame to crash on top of her head, court documents allege.

Ive never met a water balloon that can smash glass.

 

[Kwayera]

Depends on the glass and how big/how full the water balloon was, and quality of the rubber used for it.