District had duty to protect student from off-campus assault

Nine-year-old Jane Doe attended a public elementary school in Mississippi. Her school had a formal, compulsory check-out policy, which listed adults who were authorized to take the student off campus during the school day. Despite the policy, school personnel released Jane during the school day on six occasions to an adult who was not authorized to check her out. The adult usually signed her out as her father and, on at least one occasion, as her mother. He was not related to her in any way and did not have custodial rights over her. Each time that this adult removed Jane from school, she was subjected to grievous sexual abuse and then returned to school.

Jane’s parents sued the school district, arguing that it had a duty to protect her and that it was deliberately indifferent to her safety. For the first time ever, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes Texas) found that the district had a duty to protect a student who was harmed by a private, third party. In this case, the duty arose from the fact that Jane was confined to the school without the protection of her legal guardian which, when combined with her young age, made her completely dependent on the school for her safety. The court also agreed that the school district acted with deliberate indifference toward Jane by checking her out to an unauthorized adult without verifying his identity to confirm that he was authorized to check Jane out of school.