By MATT CHANDLER
mchandler@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1654

When Julie Apter's phone rings, it's usually because there is a problem - a big one.

It might involve a parent who is suing because their child was engaged in a relationship with a teacher that included the exchange of more than 8,000 text messages over a four-month period. Or the problem could be a lawsuit involving a school district after a middle-school student was impaled on a piece of wood in what Apter described as "a freak accident."

A veteran attorney who represents school districts across Western New York from Lancaster to Dunkirk, Apter has seen it all.

She is the person superintendents reach out to when matters of litigation and liability arise. With reports littering the evening news about improper student-teacher relationships, school bus hazings and campus violence, school districts are under mounting pressure to ensure the safety of students.

Are there limitations to what length a school can go to in order to keep children safe? Is it a matter of parents playing a bigger role in their children's academic experience? Or are there other issues at the heart of the apparent rise in school-based lawsuits?

According to Apter, it's a complex issue with numerous variables, not the least of which could be the negative impact that education litigation may have on the very children who are being taught in the schools.

"Within a school district it is probably 50/50," she said, when asked about the types of litigation she is seeing. "Fifty percent are pure negligent accident injury cases. Of the other 50 percent, three-quarters of those are sexual assault and sexual abuse cases."

Educating the educators

In the latter group, the claims that Apter said are "preventable," a lot of the issues come down to educating the staff.

"Our firm provides seminars for schools and we present programs on how to avoid harassment and discrimination claims, as well as what to do and what not to do for the staff," she said. "We offer them the boundaries."

It's a point that Frontier Central School District Superintendent Ron DeCarli said is critical to minimizing the legal exposure school districts face.

"Your overall priority is that when these young people are with us, they are our responsibility. And we do everything we can to reduce the probability that something bad could happen," he said. "Obviously professional development of your staff is important in terms of keeping them on top of all of the different types of preventative measures one needs to be aware of. We work hard to do everything we can possibly do to train our staff in terms of mentoring and training."

DeCarli said his district undergoes an in-depth safety risk analysis through its insurance company. The district uses that as a road map to address what he called "high-risk areas" and make necessary corrections. Even then, the veteran administrator said nothing is 100 percent preventable.

"The key word is being proactive," DeCarli said. "Out of a hundred things, you can do 99 correct, but it can be the one bad thing that you can become stereotyped to."

Does he worry that the increase in lawsuits and the ongoing threat of litigation affect the ability of his staff to carry out their job of educating the students?

It is always a concern, he said, and something that is taken very seriously in the Frontier Central School District. Yet he doesn't allow it to dictate his educational agenda.

"You cannot be traumatized by fear," DiCarli said.

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With seemingly a rise in the number of school litigation cases being filed in Western New York, is it a crisis in education? Or is it more a matter of the news media over-reporting the salacious details of a teacher-student affair or a student circulating risque cell phone photos? While DeCarli said such things do get more media attention, "it's the news and we have to deal with it."

Apter, meanwhile, suggested a disturbing possibility - that parents fabricate allegations for personal gain.

"Now, especially with all of the attorney advertising, we do see a lot more lawsuits. At least, I'm seeing that," she said.

Apter shared a story of a case she was involved in where a teacher had sexually abused an elementary school student. Horrific on its own, she said, the case blew up when opportunistic people thought they had a chance to cash in at the expense of the school district.

"The case got so much publicity, we ended up with between seven and 10 claims from families saying their daughters were abused," she said. "In the end, it was really determined that only three were (abused). It was unfortunate that it happened, but we had a number of people who I think were looking for easy money. So that does happen."

Jeffrey Weiss is an attorney with Harris Beach PLLC who specializes in education law. He said the evolving role of parents also could be a factor in the rise of these types of lawsuits. He cited three areas that lead to more filings:

• Accessibility. "There is a greater access to information now so parents are more likely to know their rights and thus more likely to pursue a claim," he said.

• Economic factors. "We are in tough times right now," Weiss said. "People are increasingly frustrated with their life situations and I think they may want to point the finger at somebody. You see it where people want to blame the government for their problems and, essentially, the district is an extension of the government."

• Parental protection. "Parents are more involved in their kids' lives and more likely to speak up for them," he said. "Parents are more likely to advocate for their kids."

Tracie Lopardi, meanwhile, is a colleague of Weiss' at Harris Beach. Speaking to the third point of parental protection, she sees cases where parents tend to go too far in advocating for their children.

Said Lopardi: "The days are gone where Johnny would get in trouble and the parents would say, ‘Johnny, what did you do?' Now they go to the teacher and say, ‘Well, it couldn't have been my Johnny,' It used to be that a student would get suspended from school and the parents would say, ‘I hope you learned your lesson.' Today, what some parents do is just move to a new district so their child doesn't have to be suspended."

In a case where the child was suspended for fighting, using drugs or another serious offense, should that behavior repeat itself in the new district, it may be a lawsuit waiting to be filed.

Lopardi said that, unfortunately, when it comes to issues of bullying or questionable behavior involving social media sites such as Facebook, too often parents are still falling back to the old mantra, "It's just kids being kids."

That, she said, can open the door to a host of legal issues.

Also, schools are no longer responsible for students simply during the school day. Current rulings have, in some instances, put them on the hook for virtual 24-hour responsibility for the actions of their pupils.

"The schools do have the right to discipline students, even for things that happen outside of the four walls of the school building," Lopardi said. "If it could affect the safety, welfare or morals of other students, you can in fact discipline them."

After-hours Facebook posts, text messages and other forms of potentially harassing or threatening communication outside of the school, if left unchecked, can bolster a future lawsuit if the behavior carries over to the classroom. She said stronger community involvement is a key to addressing certain issues, protecting students and reducing costly litigation against school districts and, ultimately, taxpayers.

"The districts I work with not only want that parent involvement and community involvement," Lopardi said, "but they need it to be successful."