Department to pay R2.5m for classroom tragedy
The mother of a child who was injured when a teacher assaulted him by piercing his left eye with a pencil, which penetrated into the brain behind the eye, is due to receive more than R2.5m from the Gauteng Education Department after she instituted a damages claim.
A Pretoria News report says the mother turned to the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) following the incident in August 2014, when the child was only six years old.
He is now 16 and blind in his left eye as a result of the pencil incident. The MEC for Education in Gauteng was sued in a representative capacity as nominal defendant for claims arising against the child’s former primary school.
The MEC earlier accepted liability on behalf of the teacher and the school and the court at the time ruled that the Education Department was 100% liable for the damages which could be proved.
The matter returned to court where the amount of damages was determined.
The Pretoria News report says in determining this, the court did not discuss how the incident occurred, but rather what the lasting effects on the now-teenager are.
The mother initially claimed R9.1m in damages from the department. A host of experts provided the court with reports regarding the teenager and all agreed that he had suffered a severe injury, rendering him blind in the left eye. He also suffered a moderate brain injury.
Neurosurgeons said the injury to the child’s brain resulted in a post-traumatic organic neuropsychological disorder.
The sequelae of his injuries resulted in permanent losses of learning capacity, employment capacity, independence, amenities and enjoyment of life, the court heard.
Regarding his eye, the experts agreed that the injury had left him with no perception of light in that eye and with no recovery of vision possible.
Having considered the facts of this matter and the authorities, the court said in its view an award of R550 000 for the loss of an eye and disfigurement and R350 000 for the moderate brain injury sustained, neurocognitive and neuropsychological damage, headaches and the risk of epilepsy would be fair.
The court also awarded an amount of R418 812 for the child’s future medical expenses, slightly more than R1m for future loss of earnings and R900 000 in total for general loss of earnings.
The department will also have to foot the bill of R176 702 for the trust costs for the money to be held in trust.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
