Opinion needed on consequences

Parent Cafe
21

<p>Pretty much the same thing happened to S1 his senior year. He played the upright bass in the school jazz band. At school he used the school instrument, but had his own at home, so he never took the instrument out of the building (when they traveled he used his own bass). He had been telling the teacher for most of the semester that the restraining strap in the bass locker was missing, but the teacher did nothing to replace (teacher admitted all of this). S1 put the bass away in the locker, closed the door, and left the locker area. Other kids were hanging out in the locker area. Some ten minutes later the bass fell out of the locker and broke the neck. The other kids all swear it just “fell out”. S1 loaded the bass up in his car and took it to the repair shop the school used, which he also had used in the past. Three days later he picked up the bass, and returned it and the bill to the school. The bill was $700. Everything was cool, teacher assured him everything was fine, signed off his graduation.</p>

<p>A week after graduation we got a letter from the school insurance company with a bill for repair of the instrument – $1500. It took a letter from our lawyer, including a statement from the teacher to get them to rescind the bill.</p>

<p>My guess is that this is a ploy by the insurance company – demand to see the bill and the policy as well. And get a statement from the teacher stating it was an accident.</p>

22

<p>I am all for taking responsibility, but I think that tripping while moving a large (if it was a bass), cumbersome instrument is unfortunate, but not necessarily preventable. What if the teacher had just asked a student to move the instrument and that student had tripped?</p>

23

<p>The school is insured. If the student tripped and broke a desk, they wouldn’t expect the student to pay anything towards the desk.</p>

<p>Is this a public school?</p>

<p>the parents should tell the school that they may sue the school because the child may be injured from the fall. LOL</p>

<p>BTW…if a teacher had tripped and fallen and broken the instrument, would they expect the TEACHER to pay anything? NO frickin’ way.</p>