Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By Jonathan Safran, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
Prompted by the recent death of a four-month old Milwaukee, Wisconsin infant who was left in a child-care transport van, the State Senate and State Assembly have passed a bill which will require child-care van owners to install alarm systems in transport vehicles, necessitating van drivers to physically go through the van interior, to the back door, to disarm the alarm. See Child-Van Alarms to be Required for Safety Purposes.
An 11 year old Springfield, Massachusetts boy recently committed suicide after daily
In Missouri and other States around the nation, it appears that more and more stories are being reported about female teachers having inappropriate (sexual) relationships with male students. Some believe that these situations are different from male teachers having a relationship with a female or a male student. I disagree. Teachers are put in a position of trust with students. Teachers are not placed into schools to hit on or pick up students like at a singles bar. Teachers are there to supervise and educate our children – not have sex with them. In St. Louis (Breckenridge Hills), Missouri, an investigation is under way regarding a Special School District teacher who allegedly had an inappropriate relationship with a 17 year old male student at Ritenour High School. See 
A tragic pedestrian / school bus accident took place in Warwick (Providence) Rhode Island recently. A 15 year old student was hit and killed by a school bus carrying students from Providence High School. News reports indicate that the student was wearing headphone at the time of the accident. She was hit while she was crossing the street. While the student may have been distracted, it is unknown from the information reported in the news who was at fault for the accident. Of course, it is not against the law for a pedestrian to wear headphones. There have been other accidents in which pedestrians have been distracted while wearing headphones. This goes the same for drivers as well.
The Dekalb County (Decatur) School Board – Georgia will review an anti-bullying policy following the suicide death of an 11 year old boy. Jareem Harrera hung himself on April 16. He told his parents that he was upset after being teased for “talking funny” and “being gay”. Tragically, Jareem was found by another family member after Jareem hung himself. The policy that was in place at the school required teachers to report instances of bullying and that three instances / incidents would be sufficient to get the violating student expelled.
A Christian County (Hopkinsville) Kentucky middle school student was arrested for bringing a gun to school. The boy, age 13, brought the gun to school and showed it to other students. It was a .45 caliber handgun with ammunition. While the weapon was not fired and it does not appear that the student intended on using the gun, the presence of the gun in the middle school did create a danger to the students and teachers. The gun could have accidentally been fired. Another student could have grabbed the gun and discharged it. The gun could have been used to threaten others. The combination of the gun with teenagers in a school system was a dangerous. Fortunately, nobody was injured or threatened with the gun.
Bullying is a problem that is present in day care centers, elementary and middle schools, and high schools and beyond. To better deal with bullying issues, it is often helpful to study and better understand the psychology and interactions involved with bullying. A University of Florida study indicated that girls were more likely to defend bullying victims than boys. Of course, this does not mean that girls do not bully. Some of the most brutal bullying incidents both psychological and physical have been committed by girls. As noted by University of Florida researchers, there has been a lack of recognition and study of kids who try to defend victims of bullying or stop the bullying incidents from taking place or continuing. The National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Centers estimate that over 5.7 million children are involved in bullying incidents as either the bully or the victim.
A former teacher recently was sentenced to 4 years for molesting a 14 year old in a hotel room. Daniel Axtell, age 38, is a former Huntington Beach, California middle school student. In December 2008, he pleaded guilty to 6 felony counts for lewd acts on / with a 14 year old. Axtell met the girl at Talbert Middle School in Orange County, California. Like many child predators / sex offenders, Axtell gained the trust of the child and her family. During a two month period in 2005, Axtell took the girl to hotel rooms for sex. The acts were calculated and planned. Certainly, Axtell knew that he was breaking the law but this did not stop his illegal and immoral acts.
USA Today reported on school killings in schools since 1983. A map published by USA Today illustrated school killings in elementary, secondary and post secondary schools across the nation. The map is interactive in that a reader can click on a geographic area or incident to find out more details on the school killings.
The internet and social networking sites are often times distractions to students. Yes, the computer is a tool. It is also a toy. Anyone online can get distracted from the work at hand and wonder off to other sites including Facebook and My Space. A recent study showed that college students using Facebook studied less and had lower grades than the students that did not use Facebook. The study was conducted by Aryn Karpinksi, a doctoral student at Ohio State University.