Service is, and should be, a hallmark of a Catholic education. Catholic schools, religious education and youth ministry programs offer strong service experiences that give young people the opportunity to practice the Catholic faith in action. St. Matthew’s Gospel 7:21 finds Jesus saying, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father Who is in heaven.” Catholic education and ministry foster faith, community building and a sense of belonging. Comprehensive, carefully developed service programs foster young persons’ connections to, and practice of, the Catholic faith. We certainly welcome students of all faiths, but our identity is Catholic, and we expect all students to live lives of service now and in the future. Luiz Fernando Klein, S.J. in “How Pope Francis Sees Education,” laciviltattolica.com quotes Pope Francis as saying in Laudato Si’ 15 that “change is impossible without motivation and a process of education.” Additionally, Father Klein notes, that Pope Francis observes “formal education has become impoverished due to the legacy of positivism. It conceives only an intellectualist mode and the language of the head. Because of this, it has become impoverished.” (9).
As Catholic school educators, we want our young people to learn and live the values of service aligned with Jesus’ Gospel call in Matthew 22:37-39: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
We want our schools and programs to be excellent in the teaching and experiences they offer. Part of that desire should be to provide students of all ages with the opportunity to serve. Kindergarten and first-grade classes, for example, could travel to nursing homes to sing for residents or make cards for them.
Whenever students leave campus, there is a greater risk of injury than if they are in a classroom. There are potentially more hazardous situations in off-campus activities than in traditional learning experiences. When problems arise and injuries occur, administrators and supervisors are concerned first with the safety of the child and secondly with school and professional legal liability. Negligence law applies in such cases. The term negligence indicates a lack of intent to harm. Before a person can be found liable for negligence, four elements must be present: (1) duty; (2) violation of duty; (3) proximate cause; and (4) injury. If any one element or more is missing, no legal negligence can be found.
All who work in Catholic schools, religious education and youth ministry should understand these elements. First, the person or persons must have had a duty in the first place. An educator who is walking through a mall and sees two students fighting is not legally obligated to intervene since he or she has no responsibility for students in the mall at a time when no school or parish activities are taking place. An educator can always assume a duty that he or she would not normally have and in such a circumstance, could be held liable for an injury that occurs after the educator inserts himself into a supervisory role.
Violation of duty is straightforward. If a teacher or other supervisor had a duty in a situation and did not meet the requirements of the duty, he or she has violated the responsibility.
A supervisor can only be found liable for negligence if he or she has violated a duty, such as leaving students unsupervised without a good reason.
Proximate cause is a contributing or “but for” factor. If the supervisor had done what should have been done or refrained from doing what was done that contributed to the injury, injury may have been prevented, and proximate cause can be found to exist.
Injuries can be physical, mental or emotional. If there is no injury, there can be no finding of legal negligence.
Sister Mary Angela Shaughnessy, SCN, J.D., Ph.D.Angie.Shaughnessy@LMU.edu