Can we sue in behalf of our son?

Thanks for reading this, any thoughts would be appreciated.

Our 16YR son attends a school for visually impaired children went out of state to participate in a sanctioned sporting event called Goalball. We did sign permission to travel, but that was all that was required plus small entry fee. *See Goalball info below*

While my son was paticipating in the game and after he made a goal he was making his way back into posistion by feel as normal but got disoriented and somehow found his way behind the goal instead of in front of it. Now each goal has a "spotter" or observer who stands there to make sure the ball is in and that the participant is not out of bounds etc. The spotter DID see my son was behind the goal and in the wrong place but he was a volunteer and thought he was not allowed to say anything during game play. There are rules about talking due to the game requires athletes to listen for the ball, anyway the front of the goal used was padded, not the backside. Normally from games I atended the goals are made of PVC piping, but this goal apparentley was made of metal.

My son heard the ball coming, dove to block and smashed his face and head into the metal portion of the pole breaking/damaging 4 of his front teeth. My son had beautiful teeth after many years of ortho work we paid for but right now does not even look or talk the same. Anyway, currently we are paying out of pocket all costs related to this injury, two root canals, ER vists, meds and the like and this is not even the implants/bridges and crowns etc we have found out he will need.

My question(s) is: the school (s) liable in anyway.

To me this was just plain negligent especially with all the sighted persons there supervising these kids and this game.

What are our rights and responsibilites?

So far because we have medical no one has stepped forward to help with any costs and everyone seems to be passing the buck, we also have not met our $1,000. medical deductible yet but I am sure we will soon.

Also the extreme pain our son is in and embarrassment from some of the kids making fun of his looks is frustrating. He stays as a resident at the school the majority of the school year so we can not be there with him in all this and have to trust the school to inform us as we progress in this situation. Any help would be appreciated.


**Goalball is a team sport designed for blind athletes. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it, into the opponents' goal. They must use the sound of the bell to judge the position and movement of the ball. Blacked out goggles allow partially sighted players to compete on an equal footing with blind players.***

I think your first action should be to contact the school with regards to your out of pocket expenses, regardless of any accident policies they may currently have in place. I think it was their duty to inform any volunteers of current policies and procedures and accepting your post at face value, it doesn't appear that volunteer was fully prepared, in my opinion. It appears questionabe that the school exercised due care of your child. I don't know if the injuries are sufficient to justify pain & suffering damages; an attorney can give you a better evaluation, but if the school did not take the time to thoroughly inform or train anyone responsible for special needs, I believe there's a certain amount of culpability involved. (An opinion, not to be construed as legal advice.) At the very least, I think they should contribute towards the costs of your out of pocket expenses. http://www.legalmatch.com/law-librar...egligence.html may be of help here. If the school refuses any responsibility, I'd suggest you contact a personal injury attorney, regardless of whether or not you signed an accident waiver along with that travel permission you mentioned.

Best wishes to you and your family, especially your son.

TY for your opinion and thoughts. We definatley feel the same that the person who was volunteering to be a spotter or what ever you call them should have at the least used common sense to stop the game for a momment and guide him physically back in the front of the goal. How ironic that the volunteer was actually a Doctor we found out too..

We know that our son could be injured playing a sport, that is the risk we take as parents and if he had been hit in the face with the ball for instance, even without any waiver we would not have such a big issue in this.

The problem we have is a few things:

One these kids are blind/visually impaired and the safety requirments and supervision should be a bit higher than regular sighted children when playing sports.

Also we have addressed with his school that we feel their insurance should be taking care of these costs, but they do not agree and have not given us any insurance information as to if they even have any insurance. The most they have done is contacted the organization that Sanctioned the game and our son is a member of and that organization we spoke with stated that they would be the insurer of last resprt after the schools insurance paid for the costs. The school tried to tell us that the USABA was paying any outstanding after "we" paid. That was not what the organization ment after talking to them.

Basically everyone is passing us around and blaming each other at this point.

Right now our first concern is taking care of our sons teeth, we just are getting very frustrated in the way everyone else is handling this situation.

There is simply no possible way that a school that carries disabled children does not include with its enrollment implicit instructions on insurance they carry as well as insurance parents must carry, not to mention waivers of liability that are signed.

As a former teacher as well as the parent of a special needs child as well, I have been presented with such information as well as have presented it to parents in enrollment.

But, since you don't refer to these documents as all, it is only speculation as to what is recorded there.

But generally speaking tutorial on liability: While my "duty of care" phrase has already been referred to, the "assumption of risk" has not. When determining liability, the courts determine if the party you are suing exercised due care (did they act in a reasonable manner, or did they wantonly disregard your sons safety and well being). Obviously, a court can decide this, but a few things you have said may indicate that, in fact, they did exercise reasonable care--and did not exhibit careless or wanton disregard for your sons well being. You say there are sighted people there, you said they are not allowed to talk during the game, which would remove the ability a sighted person would have to shout out a warning suddenly.

Assumption of risk is something that you accept when willfully engaging in some behavior, such as sports. Also, signing waivers (something required in non-special needs schools ) also usually waives liability as well.


Accidents happen at "sighted" games all the time---the question is, did those in authority exercise due care in the execution of their responsibility. Aside from waivers you signed, insurance you are required to carry, etc. if you sue, you will have to prove wanton and reckless disregard in order to prevail. Just calling the school, asking them to pay for medical expenses? Well, if you were the school, what would YOU say? "Aww, sure, we have a few thousand sitting here--we always pay when kids get hurt. Lemee cut ya a check!" No, obviously, the SCHOOL has attorneys who would make that determination ( not school boards ). Of course, you can consult with an attorney who can tell you specifically the chances you have of recovering damages, but I wouldn't notify the school, unless you have lost your copy of the enrollment paperwork which states what insurance YOU must carry in order for your child to participate. If you are intent upon suing, I would not "tip your hand" and call the school---I would pay an attorney for a low cost ( or free ) consult, and if he thinks the school is liable, ask him to write a letter saying he is doing so on your behalf. Doing this will, again, express that you are serious about the situation and that you are willing and able to retain legal counsel to represent you if it comes down to it. If the school has any liability, they would probably rather pay a few thousand dollars than to risk bad publicity. But, realize, of course, these types of schools are not only armed to the teeth with attorneys, they are also padded nicely and usually walk the straight and narrow when it comes to the extreme care of their special treasures.

I probably need to clarify a few things. First of all our son has attended this school since 1998, and goes yearly. On the enrollment form I can not tell you what is stipulated being this is a state run school and the majority of kids there are insured thrugh Medicaid. We have always been self insured and most things are handled at little to no cost through the schools on campus infirmary and nurse and contracted doctors, visual specialist, etc. As for what the school has for insurance I can not tell you because we are not getting any clear answer at this time, just the run around.

We personally went to the school Monday to not only talk with the staff but to see our son and arrange treatment being his teeth had nerves that were exposed and causing extreme pain since Saturday afternoon when the incident happened. We NEVER got a call from Fl by any of the staff or personell after or when this happened. In fact the only telephone calls we got was the first call from the WV infirmary nurse who was not there. She explained what she knew and left us witgh an impression that he had been hit by a ball and it was minor chip(s) that the schools contracted could fix that Monday morning unless we wanted to have him sent home when they returned Sunday to take him to a dentist here 5 hours away. The 2nd call was from our son when he was released from the ER he called on a cellphone and told us his teeth were not just chipped but shattered and how the guy who was spotting who was a volunteer and a doctor told him he saw him not where he blelonged but he did not think my son would attempt to go for the ball.

After having no luck contating anyone until late Sunday night and my son calling in extremem pain and crying we went up. During the intial meeting we were avoided by the principal and the superintendant was not avail though she was at the game when this happened and went with our son to the ER. We had to deal with the coach. Initially we were told by the coach that they (the school) knew we had medical and all this should be covered under our medical being it was an emergancy accident. When we mentioned what about any dental costs that maynot be covered then the dance began. They told us the USABA who sponsered the sanctioned game would cover all medical out of pocket costs not covered by our insurance but if we did not have dental insurance then they would not if they found we had elected to not have it through my husbands job if it was provided. Excuse me? So far we have contacted the school that this happened in and were told their insurance would not cover this because it was not considered a liability issue.

Well common sense seems to tell me that yes we as parents assume risk in allowing ourt child to play a contact sport if you want to call it that. But this is not that a ball came across the court smashed his face and broke his teeth.

This is more like watching the Superbowl and a toddler walks out onto the filed and you see he is either going to be hurt or hurt someone else, you stop the game and remove the danger.

You have students playing a game that are visually impaired and or blind and you put goggles on them to make them more blind and yet you fail to pad the goal properly, insist they wear mouthguards and helmets and allow one child that belong on the court to wander behind the goal when you know he belongs in the taped area in front of it? Excuse me? Thats just plain ignorant and does not in my opinion constitute reasonable care in any way. I entrust the school to keep my child safe being he is visually impaired and I entrust mobility experts to know what is safe and unsafe in both action and in equipment.

This is a case f oppsie, we never thought of that. This is something that has never happened in the game of Goalball in fact before. Maybe the USABA needs to have a change in the current rukles and be more specific regualtions pertaining to equipment and when talking is allowed.

Lastly we actually spoke with the Executive person in charge is the USABA Goalball association and he was present when this happened. He told us that the spotter had every right to speak up when he saw this, he apparently just was not schooled properly in doing so. They do and are suppose to stop a game in action if someone is in danger. As fofr the lack of padding and no mouth guard on the goal, I can not speak for that., I was always under the assumption they wore mouth guards because my son does when he wrestles for the school.

Have you contacted the particular state agency that oversees the school? They're ultimately accountable for the day-to-day operations and in an instance such as this, you might get a faster response from them. As a rule, state-run institutions are under a stricter set of policies and guidelines, particularly when special needs students are involved and any lapses in standard policies should be reported immediately. If you're unable to get a satisfactory answer from the superintendant and your out-of-pocket expenses begin mounting (I believe they possibly could,) a little pressure on the agency may expedite the insurance process. On the whole, state and federal regulations regarding special needs educational sites have been tightened up significantly in the past few years and if you're not getting the kind of answers you feel you should, you may want try a different route.

Again, depending on how quickly your costs add up, you may want to consult with an attorney. A state-sponsored school for special needs children has a greater burden of care, in my opinion, by sheer virtue of those special needs. Just a thought.

Again, good luck.

Let me point out that the "run around" is a byproduct of the fact that schools, especially state run special needs schools have a staff of qualified attorneys. Expect the run around until you hire an attorney. If negligence was involved, you are entitled to a substantial judgment and suing will help make the school safer for students in the future. Plus, expecting the administrator of the school, or those in attendance to tell you what the state is going to do in response to this situation isn't really fair to them--they don't have the authority to make that decision.

Rest assured with all of the red tape and bureaucracy that goes into ANY government funded project, they ARE insured to the gills. If you want to put yourself on equal footing, you are going to have to hire an attorney.

Proving negligence is going to be difficult.

I think if you view this video link of how a sanctioned game Goal Ball game is played you will get a clear understanding of how there is negligence in the accident. Lithuania trounces USA 5-2 for the bronze medal-Good Luck Beijing 2007 International Goalball Tournament


I also did finally speak with two attorneys that called back today, and I actually do have a case but have run into two problems.

1. Not enough money involved for them to actually take the case, imagine that....to bad this is not just about money and costs. It is about paying for current costs from the injuries sustained currently and any costs that maybe related to problems that may happen in the future because of carelessness by the schools and people I entrusted my sons care to period!

2. It also sounds like I may possibly need to find an attorney in the state of Florida where this injury occured.

I just do not accept that someone would want to call this a "sports" related injury and call it a non preventable and unforseeable accident based on how the game is run and considering this is a game set up to be played being blind. This sport has a stricter requirements and standards of care then a soccor game played by sighted children. For someone to expect my child to KNOW he was behind the goal and not in front of it is rediculous! The lack of reaction by the referees, coaches or persons there to assist these kids was just plain dangerous and negligent in my opinion.

BTW I did read something about this on a link that was given on here that I think says it all and is not to difficult to show based on the circumstances. Of course I am not a lawyer and that is why I posted for advice and have contacted a couple now

**Negligence is carelessness that causes personal injury to someone else. The negligence can be either an action, like carelessly knocking a brick off a rooftop, or a failure to do something

To support a legal claim for negligence, the plaintiff (the person filing the lawsuit) must show four things: That the defendant (the person or entity being sued) owed the plaintiff a duty of care; that the defendant failed to exercise due care towards the plaintiff (i.e. breached the duty); that the defendant’s breach of duty caused the plaintiff’s injury; and that the plaintiff suffered damages as a result.***