Malaga secondary school student loses sight in one eye after classmate throws set square

A 14-year-old student has lost sight in one eye after being hit by a set square thrown across the classroom by a classmate at a Malaga secondary school.

The accident occurred after an art class, when the students were putting away their materials for the next class. One of them threw the set square back to a classmate. At the precise moment, the victim walked in front of the flying object, which struck him in the right eye.

The accident has led to extremely serious injuries and permanent vision impairment.

After several surgeries and a lengthy recovery process, the student, through his legal representatives, filed a claim for damages against the regional government of Andalucía.

His team maintained that the accident occurred because, during the transition between classes, no teacher was present in the classroom to supervise the students. They sought compensation of 115,213.89 euros for injuries, visual impairment, loss of quality of life and future treatments.

The regional ministry of education rejected the claim, arguing that the damage could not be attributed to the operation of the public education service. According to it, the incident resulted from the unforeseeable behaviour of another student, not from negligence on the part of the school.

This decision led the student to pursue legal action, seeking a declaration of the regional ministry's liability.

The High Court of Justice of Andalucía (TSJA) has now upheld that ruling and dismissed the appeal in its entirety. For the court, the events occurred during the routine change between two classes and the next teacher arrived in the classroom immediately after the accident. According to the panel of judges, this brief interval is part of a school's normal functioning and cannot be equated with a prolonged lack of supervision.

The ruling states that the damage originated from the actions of another student and not from a deficiency in the educational service. It notes that the regional ministry's liability for damages requires a direct link between the functioning of the public service and the harm suffered, a circumstance that is not found in this case.

The ruling also points out that the individuals involved were 14 years old, an age at which a minimum level of maturity can be expected. Therefore, it considers it neither logical nor reasonable to require a specific surveillance system to prevent incidents during class changes, adding that it is unreasonable to demand that a teacher monitor every student's every move during such brief periods.

The ruling also rejects the notion that the mere occurrence of an accident within the school is sufficient to establish liability. As it points out, citing Supreme Court precedent, "the provision of a specific public service (...) does not imply that the current system of strict liability (...) transforms them into universal insurers for all risks" that people may face.

During the proceedings, the plaintiff cited a ruling by the High Court of Justice of Madrid that awarded compensation to a student injured when he was left without a teacher in the classroom for an entire hour. However, the Andalusian High Court considers the two situations different because, in this case, classes were held normally and the accident occurred only during the brief teacher changeover, without any prolonged absence of supervision.

Since it did not find a causal link between the functioning of the educational service and the student's injuries, the TSJA confirmed the dismissal of the claim for damages, rejected the requested compensation of more than 115,000 euros and imposed the costs of the proceedings on the appellant.

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