15-year-old Vinicios Robacher says he was snoozing away in class when teacher Melisssa Nadeau chose to rouse him abruptly by slamming her hand down on his desk. That rude awakening resulted in pain and “very severe injuries to his left eardrum”, according to the pre-lawsuit complaint filed by his lawyer, Alan Barry, with officials in Danbury, Ct. (“Danbury student suing after being awakened by teacher”, AP/WTNH, Mar. 13).
Legal hazards of waking students
15-year-old Vinicios Robacher says he was snoozing away in class when teacher Melisssa Nadeau chose to rouse him abruptly by slamming her hand down on his desk. That rude awakening resulted in pain and “very severe injuries to his left eardrum”, according to the pre-lawsuit complaint filed by his lawyer, Alan Barry, with officials in […]
9 Comments
Do these students care about their names being published like this? I mean, who in their right mind would employ this student now or later? Not because he has been snoozing in class, I suspect we all have done that from time to time, but for being a runner-up for the 2008 Stella award?
I hope that the kid takes them for 5 or 10 million. There are dozens of ways to wake someone up. I can speak from experience on how easy it is to rupture an eardrum. In 8th grade some moron snuck up behind me and smacked his cupped hands over my ears resulting in the rupturing of both eardrums. The ruptures eventually healed, but it took a few weeks of pain and discomfort. A shaken shoulder would have accomplished the same result.
She should have thrown a chalkboard eraser at him.
There’s a somewhat significant difference between making a loud noise (i.e., slapping the desk top) and pushing air under pressure directly into the ear drums.
Perhaps the kid should sue his parents for leaving him with sub-standard ear drums…
If his ear was down on the desk, where I suspect it was if he was sleeping, I can easily see how this could have caused injury. I don’t see why the hospital’s insurance carrier wouldn’t already have tried to cover this, actually.
Jim-
A shaken shoulder would have led to a lawsuit AND assault charges. Teachers are trained from the first day never to lay a hand on a student, even in a innocent way.
This kids lucky, my HS teachers used to smack those yard sticks against your desk.
My HS econ teacher, a former minor-league pitcher (lefty), was deadly with a chalkboard eraser. That was in 1973, when teachers could get away with that sort of thing.
From the “You Snooze, You sues Dept” no doubt. Is he the only one in the room suing, or is it a class action?
…cleric teachers routinely slammed a heavy textbook directly on top of the head of any sleeping student — at the Catholic all-boys high school I attended in New York City.