She’s probably a single parent and can’t speak English, but Maria Rosales knows how to find a personal injury attorney to get her some quick money. The original jury award of $5M was absurd. A 9 year old doesn’t command that kind of value.
Sadly, I have to disagree, although CCM’s way of putting it was more than a little callous. All lives have a ‘value’ according to our current tort system. A nine year old’s loss means that there is no potential earnings loss… he wasn’t a 39 yr old stockbroker who could be expected to make upwards of seven figures per year later in life. A $5M decision is based solely on the jury’s collective grief at the tragic loss of a little kid.
Alas, the tort system turned on its head. The civil justice system was set up to handle the determination of negligent acts and assess fault for injuries caused by an offending party but has dissolved into a no fault prevent everything social payment transfer mechanism. The duty now for teachers is to prevent accidental death by knowing exactly what to do in the oddest of situations. The reaonable man standard for teachers and school personnel has morphed into a superman (woman) standard that requires omniscience and omnipresnce.
This is certainly a tragic event, but when we all entered the world we didn’t do so with a guaranty that strange and troubling events would not touch our lives. And, there has always been the possibility that tragic events could happen without someone being personally responsible for causing them.
As a parent of young children- if these teachers tried to prevent this, as any reasonable and compassionate human would, then I wouldn’t want the standard used against these teachers also used against me to prove negligence. This would allow CPS to remove my children while I get put in jail with dope-dealers. This “a child died, so we have to do something” mentality is a form of dangerous sentimentality- it lacks real concern for the people involved and the circumstances.
as is typical with Insurance Journal, we lack much of the facts here; was there foreign material in the corn dog that caused the choking? But I am concerned as it doesn’t appear the teachers are trained in cpr and/or the heimlich (sp?) maneuver…that seems like a no brainer for teachers and staff to be required to complete same. I know no amount of money will bring this child back; his loss was tragic, but I also must side a bit with the jury: we’re not asking the school to be filled with superheroes, but we do entrust our young ones to them every day, and I would expect the level of training at a school to at least exceed that of my workplace, where we have many folks trained in these lifesaving procedures.
Could the school district have anticipated this child was going to choke to death? No, but the district could have easily anticipated there would one day be an event where a child or adult could need cpr/heimlich…it’s not that difficult to see the need for such training.
I completely agree with you, Chad. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if that kind of training is required of school employees BY LAW. Anyone that has daily interactions with children should have basic life-saving skills. An adult might be expected to eat a corn dog with no incident, but children are injured (or killed) doing silly or typical things every day. Is 5M exessive? Heck yes. But I don’t think it was wrong to hold the school accountable for a death that probably could have been easily prevented.
We have updated our privacy policy to be more clear and meet the new requirements of the GDPR. By continuing to use our site, you accept our revised Privacy Policy.
She’s probably a single parent and can’t speak English, but Maria Rosales knows how to find a personal injury attorney to get her some quick money. The original jury award of $5M was absurd. A 9 year old doesn’t command that kind of value.
What do you mean “a 9 year old doesn’t command that kind of value”!!????
I detest frivolous lawsuits as much as anyone, but you cannot put a value on a child’s life, you moron.
Sadly, I have to disagree, although CCM’s way of putting it was more than a little callous. All lives have a ‘value’ according to our current tort system. A nine year old’s loss means that there is no potential earnings loss… he wasn’t a 39 yr old stockbroker who could be expected to make upwards of seven figures per year later in life. A $5M decision is based solely on the jury’s collective grief at the tragic loss of a little kid.
Alas, the tort system turned on its head. The civil justice system was set up to handle the determination of negligent acts and assess fault for injuries caused by an offending party but has dissolved into a no fault prevent everything social payment transfer mechanism. The duty now for teachers is to prevent accidental death by knowing exactly what to do in the oddest of situations. The reaonable man standard for teachers and school personnel has morphed into a superman (woman) standard that requires omniscience and omnipresnce.
This is certainly a tragic event, but when we all entered the world we didn’t do so with a guaranty that strange and troubling events would not touch our lives. And, there has always been the possibility that tragic events could happen without someone being personally responsible for causing them.
Perhaps a different settlement would/should have been to get training for the school employees and skip the monetary award.
As a parent of young children- if these teachers tried to prevent this, as any reasonable and compassionate human would, then I wouldn’t want the standard used against these teachers also used against me to prove negligence. This would allow CPS to remove my children while I get put in jail with dope-dealers. This “a child died, so we have to do something” mentality is a form of dangerous sentimentality- it lacks real concern for the people involved and the circumstances.
as is typical with Insurance Journal, we lack much of the facts here; was there foreign material in the corn dog that caused the choking? But I am concerned as it doesn’t appear the teachers are trained in cpr and/or the heimlich (sp?) maneuver…that seems like a no brainer for teachers and staff to be required to complete same. I know no amount of money will bring this child back; his loss was tragic, but I also must side a bit with the jury: we’re not asking the school to be filled with superheroes, but we do entrust our young ones to them every day, and I would expect the level of training at a school to at least exceed that of my workplace, where we have many folks trained in these lifesaving procedures.
Could the school district have anticipated this child was going to choke to death? No, but the district could have easily anticipated there would one day be an event where a child or adult could need cpr/heimlich…it’s not that difficult to see the need for such training.
I completely agree with you, Chad. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if that kind of training is required of school employees BY LAW. Anyone that has daily interactions with children should have basic life-saving skills. An adult might be expected to eat a corn dog with no incident, but children are injured (or killed) doing silly or typical things every day. Is 5M exessive? Heck yes. But I don’t think it was wrong to hold the school accountable for a death that probably could have been easily prevented.