8 pages in length. A teacher's fundamental task is often incorrectly construed as being one of instruction; while education is, in fact, a primary function of every teacher, it is not necessarily the important, particularly when the classroom is full of children. The notion of supervision then becomes equally as essential a responsibility as any lessons the students may be taught. When teachers fail to uphold this responsibility and leave a room of unattended children, they open themselves up to a litany of legal problems with such a breach of duty. Bibliography lists 6 sources.
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the classroom is full of children. The notion of supervision then becomes equally as essential a responsibility as any lessons the students may be taught. When teachers fail
to uphold this responsibility and leave a room of unattended children, they open themselves up to a litany of legal problems with such a breach of duty. II. ISSUES
AND CASE LAW The first and foremost legal issue in the case study is the teachers failure to supervise his classroom of twenty-five seventh graders while he left the room
to retrieve a cup of coffee. This breach of legal responsibility left him prone to being liable for the unsavory behavior of one student and the ultimate injury of
another. Moreover, the extent of Jennys eye injury, which will leave her with impaired vision for the rest of her life, further exacerbates the problem, inasmuch as the teacher
- still fully negligent for his irresponsibility - would likely have suffered a lesser punishment had the wound only been superficial in nature. The second major legal issue involves the
concept of the reasonable person test, which attributes certain characteristics expected of the teacher that any other reasonable person would execute in the same situation (McCarthy et al, 1997).
Therefore, it is expected that a teacher will display "normal intelligence, perception and memory, and have some knowledge of and experience in the community or school" (Maynard Sewall, 2004).
There are a number of variables in this equation that speak to the differentiation between teacher experience, limitations and special skills; however, it is still deemed a common denominator for
all teachers to understand the scope of their responsibility for supervision. Moreover, it is a natural expectation for teachers to uphold a standard of behavior that reflects the need
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