School Prank Costs Parents 50K

[Locke]

Originally Posted by polak

Discipline is not the same thing as supervision.

The parents release their kids into the supervision of the school. It should be the schools responsibility to make sure those kids don't do anything stupid.

Like I said, I'm all for the kid getting criminally charged if that's possible but charging the parents for the schools lack of supervision is dumb.

Originally Posted by ricosuave

Originally Posted by polak

Where's the confusion?

When you drop a kid off at school, you are releasing them into the supervision of the school, correct?

Its supervision, it isnt parenting.

If your kid is stupid enough to set the sprinklers off I think that is outside of the realm of normal non-parental supervision.

Kids, especially at 14, should know better than to set off the sprinklers, pull the fire alarm, etc.

Mommy and Daddy have to teach little Timmy how not to be a complete moron.

What do people expect from teachers 'supervising?' Yeah, they're watching your kid at school so he doesnt get hit by a bus or run away and join the circus on their time.

They're not there to nanny your kid, teach them how to go potty and proper manners on how to eat or whatever.

I think of supervision in schools as: "Your child will be returned to you at the end of the day in more or less the same condition you dropped them off in."

[speede5]

Just out of curiosity how many of you guys have teenagers at home?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by speede5

Just out of curiosity how many of you guys have teenagers at home?

or were ever a teenager.

A lot of mis-remembering how smart you were back then in this thread.

[polak]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

The school is supervising the kids, but is not responsible for them. Kind of like if little Johnny went out and shoplifted a bunch of stuff on lunch break...the school isn't responsible for redress, the parents are. You can supervise someone without being responsible for their actions.

That's true.

It's different though cause it's school property that was damged at the school, during school hours without malicious intent (He wasn't trying to set off all of the sprinklers). Do you charge a kids parents if he hit a friends drink out of their hand and it landed on a laptop and broke the laptop?

14 is EXACTLY the age I'd expect someone to pull a stunt like pulling the fire alarm or whatever. Old enough to not be afraid but young enough to not think the consequences all the way through.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by speede5

Just out of curiosity how many of you guys have teenagers at home?

Originally Posted by nik-

or were ever a teenager.

A lot of mis-remembering how smart you were back then in this thread.

How many people did something so stupid and egregious as to cost their school $50 grand?

This isnt a little harmless prank that some kid didnt think through all the way.

For the record my hand isnt up because if I had done something like that my dad would have killed me and my mom wouldnt have stopped him.

[polak]

My dad knocked some sense into me for much smaller things that didn't cost them any thing... I'm pretty sure I would be sold into slavery if I did this.

[Hessen]

The legal responsibility is with the parents not the school.

A few weeks ago my son set off a fire alarm at his school because he was screwing around swinging his arm while walking by an exit (this is during an after school volleyball game). As a result the Fire Dept. had to come.

My wife stayed behind and called the principal to let her know what had happened as no one else knew why the alarm had gone off.

The principal told her that knowing my son she wouldn't have us billed the cost of the Fire Dept responding but that usually the parents are fined $300 if a student causes an alarm to go off.

Much smaller scale but we as his parents would have been legally responsible for his actions and any damage incurred. That being said $50K is an astounding sum. Is there anywhere that lists the damage? Water damage, electrical, etc...

[Slava]

Originally Posted by Locke

Its supervision, it isnt parenting.

If your kid is stupid enough to set the sprinklers off I think that is outside of the realm of normal non-parental supervision.

Kids, especially at 14, should know better than to set off the sprinklers, pull the fire alarm, etc.

Mommy and Daddy have to teach little Timmy how not to be a complete moron.

What do people expect from teachers 'supervising?' Yeah, they're watching your kid at school so he doesnt get hit by a bus or run away and join the circus on their time.

They're not there to nanny your kid, teach them how to go potty and proper manners on how to eat or whatever.

I think of supervision in schools as: "Your child will be returned to you at the end of the day in more or less the same condition you dropped them off in."

Haha, well here the kid came home in more or less the same condition I guess, along with a $50k debt.

I just think this was a 'prank' that somehow morphed into something totally unforeseen. The kid was locking a lock to a sprinkler. Yeah, not brilliant, but he didn't seem to be holding a lighter under the sprinkler in hopes of it going off.

I forget how exactly it happened but me and few friends shattered the glass on a trophy cabinet in junior high. We were bringing in pit mats from outside and while a couple guys were carrying them, others of us thought we would jump into them. It was just us screwing around, but the trophy case bore the brunt of that stupidity. I can't remember how much it cost, but my parents and the others paid for the repairs/replacement. I can't remember, but I probably paid personally knowing how I was brought up. Did it teach me anything? No. I mean we were being dumb in hindsight, and shouldn't have done that. Then again it was funny to us at the time and we had no idea we would actually break anything.

[psicodude]

Originally Posted by nik-

or were ever a teenager.

A lot of mis-remembering how smart you were back then in this thread.

Exactly. On which planet do smart 14 year old males exist? It's not like the kid maliciously yanked on the sprinkler in the hopes of breaking it. He was simply hanging a lock off the thing. Big freaking deal. If the worst thing my son does growing up is play a prank on one of his buddies that 999 times out of 1000 doesn't cause any harm, I will count that as a huge success.

Some 14 year olds are beating the #### out of kids, spraying graffiti, and breaking windows and get nothing more than a few days suspension and a couple hundred hours of community service. Does anyone else remember the dude that set a teacher's car on fire at McNally like 15 years ago? Yeah, he got probation and community service.

This kid didn't plan on damaging anything or hurting anyone, and his parents have to pay $50 grand? Come on, this is just silly.

[FlamesAddiction]

When I was a kid, I accidentally started a big grass fire that the fire department had to come put out. I never did get caught for it, but the outcome could have been catastrophic. I thank my lucky stars all the time... but I am a living testament to the boundless stupidity of youth.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Hessen

The legal responsibility is with the parents not the school.

A few weeks ago my son set off a fire alarm at his school because he was screwing around swinging his arm while walking by an exit (this is during an after school volleyball game). As a result the Fire Dept. had to come.

My wife stayed behind and called the principal to let her know what had happened as no one else knew why the alarm had gone off.

The principal told her that knowing my son she wouldn't have us billed the cost of the Fire Dept responding but that usually the parents are fined $300 if a student causes an alarm to go off.

Much smaller scale but we as his parents would have been legally responsible for his actions and any damage incurred. That being said $50K is an astounding sum. Is there anywhere that lists the damage? Water damage, electrical, etc...

Exactly, that is a lesson to a 14 year old. $50,000 is just punitive to the parents. Unless the lesson is supposed to be "Hey, remember the time I put a padlock on the fire alarm and torpedoed my parents retirement?!"

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by ricosuave

So who is going to pay for the repairs then?

Insurance. If the parents have to pay a deductible that's fine, but 50k? Excessive

[Locke]

Originally Posted by nik-

Exactly, that is a lesson to a 14 year old. $50,000 is just punitive to the parents. Unless the lesson is supposed to be "Hey, remember the time I put a padlock on the fire alarm and torpedoed my parents retirement?!"

Originally Posted by btimbit

Insurance. If the parents have to pay a deductible that's fine, but 50k? Excessive

Granted, and I understand all that, but someone has to pay for it. If its insurance then everyone pays due to increases in premiums. If its the school then everyone pays in taxes and allocations in funds.

$50K is excessive and unfair. Sometimes life kicks you in the balls.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Locke

Granted, and I understand all that, but someone has to pay for it. If its insurance then everyone pays due to increases in premiums. If its the school then everyone pays in taxes and allocations in funds.

$50K is excessive and unfair. Sometimes life kicks you in the balls.

Ok. I'll gladly eat my 1/8th of a cent in taxes to compensate for the increased premiums so some parent's don't get harshly punished for their kid being dumb for a minute.

$50000 is a lot of money in one lump sum for damages, but compared to overall damages that happen in a school district over a year, I bet it's nothing.

Your opinion on this is in "crotchety old man" territory imo.

[afc wimbledon]

Two points, first the kid broke the heat sensor on the sprinkler, a little piece of glass as a previous poster pointed out, this kicked in the whole floors sprinklers as it registers as a fire, hence all the sprinklers going off.
Secondly I am astounded it was only 50,000, in fact I'm sure that's massively smaller than the total cost, pretty much every class has three or four computers in that would all be screwed in the event of the sprinklers going off for the 4 or 5 minutes it would take to realize it wasn't a fire and then shut them off, on the average wing of a school your looking at replacing 20 or 30 computers plus 5 or more printers TV's and most of the high schools now use 'smart' white boards, they must cost ten grand a piece.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

When I was a kid, I accidentally started a big grass fire that the fire department had to come put out. I never did get caught for it, but it could the outcome could have been catastrophic. I thank my lucky stars all the time... but I am a living testament to the boundless stupidity of youth.

You user name is like rain on your wedding day.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by nik-

Ok. I'll gladly eat my 1/8th of a cent in taxes to compensate for the increased premiums so some parent's don't get harshly punished for their kid being dumb for a minute.

$50000 is a lot of money in one lump sum for damages, but compared to overall damages that happen in a school district over a year, I bet it's nothing.

Your opinion on this is in "crotchety old man" territory imo.

I suppose thats fair enough, its easy enough to see that $50K is an excessive penalty. I just dont think other people should have to pick up the tab on other people's kids being idiots.

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Locke

I suppose thats fair enough, its easy enough to see that $50K is an excessive penalty. I just dont think other people should have to pick up the tab on other people's kids being idiots.

What's the difference between that and paying for insurance when you never get in accidents?

This is society and there's a communal safety net.

[Galakanokis]

$50K seems awfully high. Wonder how long the water ran for. Some of my techs set off a sprinkler head when they were moving a bunch or racks about 5 or 6 years ago. One sprinkler went off and that, from what the firemen told me is normal. It took maybe 10 minutes to get a hold of building operations and shut the water off. Probably 4 or 5 inches of water built up on the top floor and it rained down all the way to the 2nd floor. I had a waterfall outside my window (directly below the accident). I think all told it cost us under $15,000 to clean up and repair anything that was damaged. Thinking the school dropped the ball on the clean up afterwards and that is why the damage was so high.

One of the first thing the firemen asked was where are the cages around the sprinkler heads? They should be mandatory on any publicly exposed sprinkler head so crap like this doesn't happen.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

$50K seems awfully high. Wonder how long the water ran for. Some of my techs set off a sprinkler head when they were moving a bunch or racks about 5 or 6 years ago. One sprinkler went off and that, from what the firemen told me is normal. It took maybe 10 minutes to get a hold of building operations and shut the water off. Probably 4 or 5 inches of water built up on the top floor and it rained down all the way to the 2nd floor. I had a waterfall outside my window (directly below the accident). I think all told it cost us under $15,000 to clean up and repair anything that was damaged. Thinking the school dropped the ball on the clean up afterwards and that is why the damage was so high.

One of the first thing the firemen asked was where are the cages around the sprinkler heads? They should be mandatory on any publicly exposed sprinkler head so crap like this doesn't happen.

I was thinking my school had cages over the sprinklers and that was back in the 70's, I suspect it was to deter kids hanging the class victim off them, as to the cost, there's a hell of a lot of tech gear in classes these days.