Study of civil or criminal judgments following injuries at physical education class

Abstract

The Physical Education area bases its teaching and learning processes on body movement and its relationship with the environment. This creates a favorable scenario for the occurrence of injuries and accidents. It is assumed that Physical Education specialists bring together knowledge and skills to create a healthy ergosystem; however, research on their initial training indicates otherwise. This lack of training does not lessen their responsibility. Thus, teachers, school centers, and the entities owning those centers, need to be aware of the legal consequences derived from negligent actions in the matter of security, as well as to analyze the reasons why they have occurred as a means of children's injuries prevention. To do that, 100 sentences within the civil and criminal jurisdiction from 1991 onward, year on which the current Civil Code entered into force, all of them regarding damages to minors in schools, were analyzed. Results demonstrate that controversies in the criminal field are unlikely to happen; also, holding entities and school centers are those who respond for teachers' harmful actions in front of the law in the majority of the cases; finally, the most outstanding causes of Physical Education teachers' imputations are lack of oversight, absence of safety measures, inappropriate placing of security equipment, unsuitable activities or grouping, or lack of review of potential structural and material dangers.