IASB Amicus Program Supports School District in Illinois Supreme Court Case About Tort Immunity 

The Amicus Program of the Illinois Association of School Boards is supporting member board of education Kankakee SD 111 before the Illinois Supreme Court in a case involving the application of tort immunity protections to school districts. IASB files Amicus Curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs in a limited number of important appellate-level cases that will have statewide significance. 

The main issues in Haase v. Kankakee School District 111 are whether tort immunity applies to: (1) a P.E. teacher’s alleged intermittent supervision of students playing soccer during a P.E. class; and (2) a decision by District administrators not to share a student’s disciplinary history with the P.E. teacher. In this case, a student was injured by another student while playing soccer in P.E. class. The students had no prior conflict with each other. Under the Illinois Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act (Tort Immunity Act), school districts and their employees are not liable for student injuries that occur under their supervision, unless the district’s or employee’s conduct is “willful and wanton.” Further, district employees are not liable for injuries that result from their determination of policy or exercise of discretion. 

The Kankakee SD 111 Board of Education, represented before the Illinois Supreme Court by attorney Erin Walsh (Franczek, P.C.), argued the teacher’s conduct was not willful and wanton where the teacher had no reason to foresee harm to the plaintiff student. And, even if the teacher was preoccupied when the injury occurred, a long line of prior cases about supervision supports that there was no willful or wanton misconduct. Additionally, the district should be immune because it exercised discretion in what behavioral interventions it used to assist the student who caused the injury, and the teacher exercised discretion when he decided how to supervise the P.E. class on the day of the incident. 

The Amicus Brief supporting the district, written by a team of attorneys with the law firm of Robbins Schwartz, including Caroline Roselli, Nikoleta Lamprinakos, Matthew Swift, Katie DiPiero, and Holly Jacobs, made several key points, including: 

• School administrators and teachers are required as part of their jobs and by law to exercise discretion when they manage student behavior and share student record information with school employees. 

• Ruling for the plaintiff student in this case would expose school employees to liability for everyday decisions made in their professional judgement, opening a floodgate of litigation against school districts. 

• District teachers and administrators are in the best position to understand their local communities and students. Courts should not be serving as “super-personnel” of school districts by second-guessing the decisions made by school district employees. 

This case highlights the need to protect the defenses normally available to school districts and their employees under Illinois’ Tort Immunity Act so that critical resources are not diverted from students to defend a tide of lawsuits. 

IASB extends a special thank you to Kankakee SD 111, its attorneys at Franczek, P.C., and IASB’s Amicus attorneys at Robbins Schwartz for their collaboration to benefit all IASB members across Illinois.