Summers v. St. Andrew's Episcopal School

Charles Ross and Kimberly Howland represented St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Hinds County Circuit Court against a claim of negligent supervision. The claim arose from an incident in which a St. Andrew’s kindergarten student, while on the playground, was thrown to the ground by a number of her classmates, following which her arms and legs were held down, her dress pulled up, her underwear pulled down, and her private parts touched. The child, through her parents, alleged that negligent supervision on the part of the teachers and/or assistant teachers at St. Andrew’s caused her to sustain emotional harm as a result of the incident. In addition, the child’s parents, on their own behalf, sought compensatory damages for emotional distress and punitive damages. Before trial, Mr. Ross and Ms. Howland moved for partial summary judgment on the parents’ claim, which the trial court granted. Furthermore, the trial court granted summary judgment to St. Andrew’s on the child’s negligent supervision claim and on the parents’ punitive damages claim. On appeal, the Supreme Court of Mississippi affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment on the parents’ compensatory and punitive damages claim. However, regarding the child’s claim, the court held that because there were genuine issues as to whether the child’s injury resulted from a failure by the school and its employees to protect her from a foreseeable harm, whether prior incidents of kicking, scratching and slapping put the defendant on notice of the potential for future problems, and whether the school should have foreseen the possibility that an incident such as the one in the case at bar might occur, the trial court should not have granted summary judgment on the child’s negligent

 supervision claim.

Supreme Court of Mississippi
May 11, 2000