Recreation and Parks Law Reporter (RPLR) case report, © copyright 1998 NRPA

PLAYGROUND SUPERVISION IN FALL FROM MONKEY BARS
COLLINS v. BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD
480 So.2d 846 (La. App. 2 Cir. 1985)
Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit
December 4, 1985

In this case, plaintiff Ronnie Collins sued the defendant school board after his son, Eugene, was injured in a fall during kindergarten recess. Collins also sued William Maleby, the father of the boy who caused the fall. The facts of the case were as follows:

During a noon recess, Eugene was playing on the horizontal ("monkey") bars when young Maleby wrapped his legs around Eugene, causing them both to fall. Eugene suffered a broken femur bone in his left leg... Recess at the Plantation Park Elementary School is taken several times daily for kindergarten students in a fenced off area of the playground approximately the size of half a football field. A duty teacher is assigned to supervise the approximately 100 students during the recess.

At the beginning of the school year and during gym classes children are told how to use the playground equipment. They are instructed that only one child is to cross the horizontal bars at a time. When the duty teacher sees a violation of these instructions she reprimands the child at once. At the time of Eugene's injury the duty teacher was preventing several children from throwing dirt at one another. She did not see Eugene fall. Another student informed her of the injury and she sent for help while she remained with Eugene. She testified that had she seen the Maleby boy wrap his legs around Eugene she certainly would have reprimanded the child instantly.

Collins argued that the school board and its employees "were negligent in their supervision of the recess period and this directly led to Eugene's injury." The trial court awarded Collins $13,141.05 plus costs and interest against Maleby, but dismissed the suit against the school board. Collins appealed.

The trial judge had provided the following reasoning for dismissing Collins' suit against the school board.

There is nothing in the evidence to show that had there been more teachers on duty this unfortunate incident would not have still occurred. Constant supervision of all pupils in not required. In fact, it is virtually impossible absent a ball and chain.

The issue before the appeals court was, therefore, "whether a teacher/student ratio of less than 1 to approximately 100 during a recess is 'adequate supervision' so as to preclude a finding of liability against the School Board and its employees."

As noted by the appeals court, there was "substantial jurisprudence in this state regarding the adequacy of the teacher/student ratio based on the facts of individual cases." Specifically, state appeals courts had found a ratio of 1 to 90 and 2 to 200 adequate. Similarly, another state appeals court had held that "a ratio of 2 teachers to between 100 and 175 students (or 1 to between 50 and 87.5 students) was not inadequate under the facts of the case." On the other hand, a ratio of 1 teacher for 150 to 180 students was found to be inadequate by a state appeals court.

In this particular instance, testimony at trial indicated that "there were less than 100 children at recess."

The maximum possible was 100 and there were absences that day. Mrs. Yorba, the duty teacher, estimated there were between 50 and 100, "closer to 100," students on the playground. In the School Board's answers to interrogatories, they estimated there were 85 children present.

Based upon this testimony and the facts of the case, the appeals court agreed with the trial judge that "the Bossier Parish School Board and its employees were not negligent in their supervision of the children during the recess. The appeals court, therefore, affirmed the judgment of the trial court dismissing Collins' claim against the defendant school board.