School Violence

With the continued news on campus crime like the tragedy at Virginia Tech and the potential danger on all college campuses on the rise, we need answers more than ever on how to make college life safer, and how we should fairly and reasonably allocate the rights and responsibilities of students and universities. Presently, university safety law does not send a clear message on how that issue should be met.

Historically, courts believed that the American university stood for the most part in loco parentis (in place of parents), insulated from legal scrutiny, and like governments, considered to be an institution outside the safety rules of the legal system, in a sense above the law. Of course, in its inception, in loco parentis, was more about the university rights and powers over the student, not their duties towards their students.

In general, negligence law is the major vehicle by which people sue universities. Those claims are various: negligent maintenance of premises, negligent security, negligent representations, negligent failure to give reasonable warnings, negligent failure to control or protect against dangerous persons, negligent supervision of school activities such as a field trip or lab experiment.

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Library for School Violence:

• Pennsylvania Law Presents Formidable Hurdles for Crime Victims in School Violence Cases   
  Description: With the potential danger to our colleges on the rise, we need answers more than ever on how to make college life safer and how we should fairly and reasonably allocate the rights and responsibilities of students and universities. Presently university safety law does not send a clear message on how that issue should be met. While parents may view college life like it is portrayed in the college catalogs, university administrations are well aware of the potential dangers.

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The Monahan Law Practice
300 North Pottstown Pike
Suite 210
Exton, PA 19341-2233

Phone: (610) 363-3888
Fax: (610) 363-2429