Teachers Force Boy with Broken Leg to Crawl to Class

A lawsuit claims teachers in suburban Chicago forced a 6-year-old boy to crawl back to class with a broken leg and a concussion, and never even called an ambulance.

The suit, filed by the boy's parents, seeks more than $200,000 in damages from Skokie School District 68, just north of Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Kindergartener Rahul Chandani slipped on a snow- and ice-covered playground in January 2011, the lawsuit alleges. The boy broke his leg and hit his head on the pavement, but teachers didn't lift a finger to help, Chandani's mother told the Sun-Times.

"His teacher told him, 'You're a big boy -- I can't carry you,'" Priya Chandani said.

The teacher "told him to walk back, but his leg was broken so he fell again and then had to crawl at least 200 to 300 feet back to the school building," Priya continued. "If someone did that to me as an adult, I'd slap them."

The Chandanis are suing the school district for negligence. To succeed, they will have to prove teachers breached their duty of care by failing to help Rahul. They will also need to prove the teachers' actions -- or rather, failure to act and forcing him to crawl back to class -- caused Rahul to suffer harm.

The Chandanis' lawsuit states Rahul had to skip six weeks of school to recover from a fractured tibia, a blod clot, and a lump on his head "the size of a tennis ball." He also required rehabilitation and was "emotionally scarred," the suit states.

School officials declined to comment on the lawsuit. But lawyers for the district are likely considering whether to assert a defense -- for example, that young Rahul assumed the risk of playing on an icy playground. It's not clear, however, how they'll try to explain why teachers forced Rahul to crawl back to class and allegedly didn't try to help.

Related Resources:

• Kindergartner forced to crawl back to class with broken leg: suit (New York Daily News)
• Proving Fault: What is Negligence? (FindLaw)
• How Much is My Slip and Fall Case Really Worth? (FindLaw's Injured)
• Ind. Mother Sues School Over Son's Suicide (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)