From: Shannon Stoney (shannonstoney@earthlink.net)
Date: 07/23/01-10:34:52 AM Z
A little coda to the whole story of the unventilated university: when I was
investigating what my options were as an "injured party," I found out that
suing a state university is in fact quite difficult, as it has some immunity
as a branch of government. We saw this very clearly in Texas when 16
students were killed at Texas A and M when the bonfire they were building
collapsed on them. It took a long time for the families of those students
to get standing to sue the university, and I'm not sure what the status of
those suits is today. A fortiori, as lawyers say, I think it would be very
difficult to sue a university because you were sick and couldn't do
photography for six months. This may explain why state universities are
often slow to fix hazardous conditions on their campuses.
HOWEVER, the great book Overexposure, which I have mentioned several times,
says that although it is difficult and usually impossible to sue a state
university, teachers can be, and have been, personally held liable for
injuries to their students. This is something to keep in mind for those of
us who teach.
--shannon
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