Opinion ID: 1393970
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: coaches.

Text: Yanero's cause of action against Davis and Becker is essentially one for negligent supervision. Teachers assigned to supervise juveniles during school-sponsored curricular or extracurricular activities have a duty to exercise that degree of care that ordinarily prudent teachers or coaches engaged in the supervision of students of like age as the plaintiff would exercise under similar circumstances. Cf. John S. Palmore and Ronald W. Eades, 2 Kentucky Instructions to Juries, § 14.04 (4th ed. Anderson 1989). See Wesley v. Page, Ky., 514 S.W.2d 697 (1974). The premise for this duty is that a child is compelled to attend school. The result is that the protective custody of teachers is mandatorily substituted for that of the parent. McLeod v. Grant County School Dist. No. 128, 42 Wash.2d 316, 255 P.2d 360, 362 (1953). The performance of that duty in this instance was a ministerial, rather than a discretionary, function in that it involved only the enforcement of a known rule requiring that student athletes wear batting helmets during baseball batting practice. The promulgation of such a rule is a discretionary function; the enforcement of it is a ministerial function. Yanero and other members of Waggener's junior varsity baseball team testified in discovery depositions that team members were regularly permitted to engage in batting practice without wearing helmets. Davis and Becker have denied these assertions and have further claimed that official batting practice had not yet begun when Yanero was struck by Coker's pitch. Yanero's cause of action is not barred by his own negligence or that of Coker (who claims the errancy of his pitch was caused when he accidentally caught his toe in the pitching rubber as he threw the ball). The very adventuresome nature of teenagers leads to experimentation and should place a teacher on notice that he can look forward not only to the expected but also to the unexpected. Wesley v. Page, supra, at 699. Cf. Scott v. Independent School Dist., 256 N.W.2d 485 (Minn.1977) (liability predicated upon failure to enforce requirement that students wear safety goggles during industrial arts class). The issues with respect to the negligence of the coaches vis-a-vis that of Yanero and/or Coker is best left to a jury properly instructed in accordance with KRS 411.182.