Herrera v. Los Angeles Unified School District (Dec. 1, 2021, No. 20-55054)
The parents of an autistic high school student who drowned on a class field trip sued the school district, alleging a deprivation of familial relationship in violation of 42 U.S.C § 1983. The parents claimed a school aid was deliberately indifferent to a risk he recognized as unreasonable when he failed to properly supervise their son at the pool, despite knowing he could not swim. The district court granted summary judgment for the school, and the plaintiffs appealed.
The Court of Appeals affirmed. Noting that failure-to-protect claims are allowed where “the state affirmatively places the plaintiff in danger by acting with deliberate indifference to a known or obvious danger,” the court held that a subjective standard should apply to determine the issue of deliberate indifference.
Under the subjective standard, the court concluded that the plaintiffs failed to show the school aid was either subjectively aware the son was exposed to the danger of the pool, because he believed plaintiffs’ son was in the locker rooms, or that the aid intended to expose plaintiffs’ son to that risk, because he was never unprotected and there were three life guards present.
