Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By John Jensen, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
According to local officials Jackie Bennett, a 57-year-old teacher, was suspended with pay after being accused of breaking the arm of a 5-year-old student. According to Bennett, the incident occurred while he was attempting a “therapeutic hold” – a technique used to restrain a student to prevent that student from causing to himself or herself and others. Theresa Perry, a spokeswoman for the Cumberland County, North Carolina school system, stated schoold regulations permit teachers to physically restrain students where safety of the students, school employees or volunteers are in jeopardy.
In Tyler, Texas, there was an accident involving the rear end collision of a school bus. Typically, school buses are quite large and a bright yellow color. Despite the size and color of the typical school bus, there continues to be reported incidents of crashed into school buses. Whether the crash involves excessive speeding, driver inattention, or other unsafe driving, all drivers need to a better job of yielding to school buses and keeping a safe distance away from school buses. Furthermore, obey all school zones and slow down in school bus stop areas. School bus accidents similar to the one in Tyler Texas involved a rear end collision that most likely could have been avoided with better driving and less driver distraction. You can read more about this story at 
The 2010 – 2011 school year has now officially started in most school districts across the United States. It is a good time for everyone (whether you have a child in school or not) to focus on key safety tips for children in and near school.
A school district is Massachusetts implemented a new school policy that makes condoms available to all students, including elementary students. Peter Grosso, Provincetown School Board Chairman, explained that because there is no set age for when children decide to become sexually active, the committee refrained from setting an age for condom availability. Under the policy, a student who requests a condom from a school nurse must receive counseling first, which includes information on abstinence; the policy does require the parents to be contacted. The policy was approved by Provincetown’s school committee on June 10 and will take effect in the fall. The policy is receiving widespread criticisms. For example, Kris Mineau, president of the conservative Massachusetts Family Institute, called the idea absurd. To read more on this story see 
A 14-year-old Minnesota boy suffered the loss / amputation of his right right testicle after being injured in a playground game called “Sack Tapping.” Sack Tapping, where a unsuspecting male is punched in the groin area, is becoming increasingly popular in all schools: elementary, junior high and high school.
In Lufkin, Texas, a teacher’s aide was arrested based on criminal allegations that she struck / hit a 4 year old boy. The incident took place at the Slack Elementary School. It was reported that another teacher’s aide witness the acts of Debra Martin Fuqua (age 54). There were subsequent investigations of the incident by the school district as well as Child Protective Services. This was an interesting story in that the alleged criminal acts were witnessed by another school employee. Often times, a child has no such adult witness to step up and serve as a witness on the case. See 
In California and other States, guns including pellet and bb guns have no place on campus or at the school or even near the school. In Whittier, California, a 10 year old boy purchased a pellet type of gun from an ice cream truck / ice cream man. Thereafter, he accidentally shot the pellet son at another student. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries that resulted from the incident. The matter was reported to school officials who later suspended the 10 year old student.