A Federal court in Georgia recently ruled in Davis ex rel. Harris v. Thomas that official immunity shielded a teacher from physical abuse claims. Despite the disturbing claims, which included a special education teacher instructing a paraprofessional to hang a disabled student from a chalkboard, mocking him and failing to take the student down until a Principal intervened, the Federal court ruled that the teacher did not act with, “…actual malice or an actual intent to cause emotional injury to [the student].” The school employee’s immunity, therefore, shielded her from abuse claims in her individual capacity.
February 2021
