Teacher with rabbit phobia to sue 14-year-old for drawing bunny

[nick]

A teacher with a phobia over rabbits is suing a 14-year-old pupil for compensation after she drew a bunny on the blackboard.

The teacher, from Vechta, Germany, says she was traumatised by the drawing, and claims the girl knew it would terrify her.

She had transferred to the school where a pupil from her former school had just become a pupil and told her new friends about the teacher's fear of rabbits.

"We did it for fun and out of curiosity", one of the girls told a court, adding, "We wanted to see if she would really freak out."

School officials removed her from the class and now the teacher is seeking compensation for her terror and her loss of earnings, her lawyer Manfred Bormann told the court.

The case continues.


Source here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7657569/Teacher-with-rabbit-phobia-to-sue-14-year-old-for-drawing-bunny.html)

[belfordrocks]

____

[Whisper]

the student should sue the teacher for her fear of being sued.

[Perseus]

Wow, let's sue a fourteen year old, guys. The judge will throw this out, I bet.

[mrmcdonaldduck]

i thought this type of stuff only happened in america. i was wrong.

[INFERNO]

I don't think the teacher will win the claim for loss of earnings and she'll be lucky if she wins the compensation claim. Although it can be argued the girl acted maliciously, taking time off work was not an expected outcome but it can also be said that the teacher unnecessarily took that time off to have the fear subside. If the teacher is that afraid of rabbits, which are pretty common in schools as pictures or stories, or even as real animals, then she may be unfit to teach. Being afraid of an animal is one thing but taking time off from work seems so extreme I'm not even sure it was necessary. The teacher should be fit enough to handle rabbits and if not, that is her fault, not the girl's.

Seeking compensation probably fails for the same reason; the teacher's reaction seems unnecessary. If anything, the girl was trying to simply make the teacher startled a bit so this is the claim that has the best chance of coming through for the teacher.