GRADE 5 STUDENT SUFFERS A BRAIN INJURY DUE TO STUMBLING AND HITTING HIS HEAD ON A CONCRETE PODIUM WITH A SHARP ANGLE DESIGN THAT PROTRUDES TOO WIDE COMPARED TO THE STANDARD CLASSROOM AREA: WHO IS THE CIVIL COMPENSATION FOR?

“Schools are considered the safest place for children after families. However, sometimes the danger does not come from violent behaviors or fights between students, but from seemingly harmless details in school facilities. A corner of a sharp concrete podium, a lack of safety design, and an unfocused risk management process can put a child in the face of lifelong trauma and plunge the school into a serious legal and media crisis. In this case, who is legally responsible? Does the school have to compensate or not?”

Let’s analyze a real situation below with MSc. Nguyen Huu Long to find a complete solution both logically and emotionally.

Summary of the actual case (The Case)

At Primary School X, Commune B, Province C, Nguyen Van M is a student of class 5A.

During the afternoon class, when the teacher called him to the board to do his homework, on the way back to his seat, M unfortunately stumbled upon a briefcase placed next to the aisle between two rows of desks and fell hard towards the podium.

Because the podium was built of fixed concrete, the corner of the podium had sharp edges and protruded quite wide compared to the classroom space, M’s head hit the corner of the podium directly.

Immediately afterwards, she fell into a state of unconsciousness and was taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.

The diagnosis results determined that she had:

Closed brain injury;

Intracranial hemorrhage;

Emergency surgery must be performed;

There is a risk of long-term effects on health and future learning ability.

The initial treatment cost amounted to hundreds of millions of VND, not to mention the prolonged rehabilitation costs and lost income of relatives who had to quit their jobs to take care of her.

M’s family believes that the cause of the incident is not only an unintended accident but also stems from the school’s use of a dangerously designed podium that does not ensure safety standards for children in the educational environment.

Meanwhile, the school said that this was a force majeure incident arising from the student’s self-trapping and was not under the school’s responsibility for compensation.

M’s family asked:

If a student is seriously injured due to a collision with a building or facility item in the school, is the school responsible for civil compensation or not?

Legal perspective – “Solid shield”

Liability to compensate for damage caused by houses and construction works

Article 605 of the 2015 Civil Code stipulates:

“Article 605. Compensation for damage caused by houses and other construction works

Owners, occupiers and persons assigned to manage and use houses or other construction works must pay compensation for damage caused by such houses or other construction works causing damage to others.

When the contractor is at fault in allowing the house or other construction work to cause damage, he must jointly compensate.”

According to this regulation, when a construction work or material foundation item causes damage to another person, the entity managing and using that work shall first be responsible for compensating the sufferer.

In simple words, if a podium, railing, staircase or any item in the school has an unsafe design or use condition and causes injury to students, the school as the unit managing and using the building may be liable for compensation.

Responsibilities to ensure a safe educational environment

Clause 1, Article 89 of the 2019 Education Law stipulates:

“The school is responsible for implementing the plan for universalization of education, the code of conduct; proactively coordinate with families and society to organize or participate in educational activities according to the school’s plan, ensuring the safety of teachers and learners; notify the students’ learning and training results to their parents or guardians.”

Thus, the educational institution shall:

To ensure the conditions on material foundations for educational activities;

Building a safe, healthy and friendly educational environment;

Protect the life, health, honor and dignity of learners.

This regulation sets a legal obligation for the school not only in teaching activities but also in ensuring the safety of facilities for students during the learning process at the school.

Children’s Right to Protection

According to Article 12 of the Law on Children 2016, it is stipulated:

“Article 12. Right to Life

Children have the right to be protected in life, to be assured of the best living and development conditions.”

This means that all children’s learning environments must be designed according to the principle of minimizing the risk of injury to children.

The process of making a record of the current situation and collecting evidence

Immediately after the incident occurs, parents have the right to request the school to coordinate in making a record of the scene with the following contents:

The time of the accident;

The location of the incident;

Characteristics and dimensions of the podium;

The condition of the angularity, the degree of protrusion of the platform;

Photos of the scene;

List of witnesses;

Initial emergency records of students;

Surveillance cameras (if any).

This is an important basis for determining the cause of the accident and the compensation liability of the parties involved.

Apply to the situation

Comparing with the above situation, if the verification results show that the podium has a sharp angle design, protrudes more than necessary, does not ensure safety for primary school students and this is the direct cause or cause of contributing to the serious injury to M student, the school has grounds to incur compensation liability according to Article 605 of the 2015 Civil Code.

In this case, the fact that the student stumbled does not automatically exclude the responsibility of the school if the design of the building itself has significantly increased the level of danger and consequences of the accident.

After performing the obligation to compensate students, if there are grounds to determine that the fault belongs to the unit that designs, constructs or accepts the work, the school has the right to request these subjects to perform the joint obligation or reimburse it in accordance with the law.

On the other hand, if the specialized agency determines that the school’s facilities fully meet safety standards, there are no errors in the design or management of the work and the injury arises entirely due to objective causes beyond the school’s control, the compensation liability will be considered on the basis of the specific level of fault of each party.

Legal conclusion

Through analysis, it can be seen that the law not only protects children’s right to education but also protects the right to study in a safe and friendly environment.

When school facilities become the cause of injury to students, the legal responsibility does not stop at determining that this is an “accident” but needs to clarify whether the school has fully fulfilled its obligation to ensure safety.

A fall may be an unexpected incident, but a sharp concrete corner that has existed for years in the classroom is a story of risk management and preventative responsibility.

Perspective of Psychology – Education – Governance – “The Key to Humanity”

Psychological perspective

For M’s parents, the moment of seeing their child lying in the emergency room with a brain injury was an extremely big psychological shock.

From the initial panic, it is easy for parents to turn into anger if they feel the school shirks responsibility or only focuses on protecting its image instead of prioritizing the interests of students.

On the other hand, homeroom teachers and school administrators also face heavy psychological pressure when the incident occurs within the school’s management.

If the exchange of information lacks transparency or empathy, the conflict between the two sides can completely escalate into a school media crisis on social networks.

Educational perspective

School accidents do not always come from the dangerous behavior of students, but sometimes come from the designs themselves that are taken for granted by adults.

A child-friendly educational environment must be built on the principle that:

“If a child runs, trips, or bumps into this location, how serious can the consequences be?”

If the answer is the risk of serious injury, then the design needs to be changed immediately.

Management perspective

The incident reflects the gap in school safety management:

The risk of accidents from facilities has not been assessed;

Sharp corners in the classroom have not been reviewed;

Lack of periodic inspection process on construction safety;

A scenario for handling the media crisis has not been developed.

A modern management system needs to shift from a “handle when an accident occurs” mindset to a “prevention before an accident occurs” mindset.

Comprehensive solution of Expert Nguyen Huu Long

Accidents involving children always leave consequences far beyond the value of hospital bills. What parents need most at that time is often not rigid legal arguments, but transparency, responsibility and goodwill from the school.

In order to solve the case comprehensively, it is necessary to prioritize the implementation of the following solutions:

Urgently make a record of the current situation and preserve all evidence related to the case;

The school actively supports emergency care and pays necessary hospital fees;

Organize direct dialogues with students’ families in the spirit of goodwill and responsibility;

Negotiate the compensation level in accordance with the actual damage incurred;

Review all facilities in the school to eliminate high-risk points;

Develop an annual school safety inspection process;

Establish a communication crisis management process to ensure information transparency and avoid spreading rumors that cause harm to stakeholders.

A civilized educational institution is not judged by whether they have an accident or not, but by how they treat students and families when the incident occurs.