A teaching assistant has won a High Court case after suffering a serious leg injury while on a school trip, as reported by London Now.
Tracy Staples, who worked at the Priory School in Croydon, was injured on Monday, May 20, 2019, when an autistic pupil known as UN jumped on her during a visit to an allotment.
She sued Croydon Council for damages, arguing that the school failed to carry out a "dynamic risk assessment" and that the trip was an "unusually high-risk choice" for the pupil involved.
The school, which caters for pupils aged 11 to 19 with moderate to severe learning difficulties, was found to have breached its duty of care by not taking reasonable steps to mitigate the risks associated with the trip, reports our sister title London Now.
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Mrs Justice Ellenbogen ruled that a "reasonable, prudent and competent" school conducting a dynamic risk assessment "would and should" have identified the risk posed by UN to staff.
She said: "It follows that I conclude that, in allowing UN to participate in the allotment trip, the defendant did not take all reasonable steps required to mitigate the relevant risks and acted in breach of its duty to provide the claimant with a safe system of work."
A hearing to decide how much Ms Staples should be paid in damages could be held at a later date.
The judge described UN as non-verbal and prone to violent behaviour when anxious, including head-butting, punching and biting staff members.
Ms Staples’ legal team argued that UN was visibly anxious on the day of the incident, and both a morning and afternoon outing had been changed at short notice, despite the pupil needing up to a week to process changes to routine.
Staff had raised concerns about the outing, noting that UN displayed biting and gripping behaviours before headbutting Ms Staples at the allotment.
She fell while being chased by UN, who then "launched herself" on top of her, causing the injury.
The court found that the risks were foreseeable and that the school had taken "inadequate" steps to minimise the danger.
Croydon Council had argued that the pupil’s behaviour and the resulting injury were not reasonably foreseeable, but the High Court disagreed.
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