Student Injury

[diddledum]

I am on the Board of a nonprofit that provides events for teens. We are considering offering scholarships to some of our events. If we SUGGEST, but do not require, on the scholarship application that the student perform some community service prior to applying for the scholarship, and the student were to be injured, could we be held liable?

 

[army judge]

I am on the Board of a nonprofit that provides events for teens. We are considering offering scholarships to some of our events. If we SUGGEST, but do not require, on the scholarship application that the student perform some community service prior to applying for the scholarship, and the student were to be injured, could we be held liable?

Probably not, but it would depend on how you worded the suggestion, and what the student chose to do to complete the community service.
California is a very lawsuit friendly state.
Do yourself a favor, have the kids do something safe, like visit a senior citizen home, tutor a peer at their school, or pediatric floor of a hospital.
If you wanna play it real safe, have them write essays, draw pictures, or write a song.

 

[Betty3]

Agree, probably not. However, you might want to run it by a lawyer & have him/her read over the wording you want to use. (help you with the wording on the application)

 

[ElleMD]

Many, many scholarships require or consider community service and volunteering in making their awards. No, you are not liable if you say applicants must have 10 hours of community service in order to apply. Now if you want students to volunteer for your organization, scholarship or not, if they get injured while in service, you are probably liable.

 

[disagreeable]

You should have any applicant required to have contact with your organization sign a release of liability against your organization. No one intends for accidents to happen. I had a student assigned to do the labor making repairs to a team trailer while I supervised and directed. While I was sitting down resting, he was sent to grind the edges of some aluminum he had cut. He used a sander that the team had been using for decades instead of the grinding wheel. As I was aware they used it for aluminum and he was an experienced team member, I did not shadow him. He ended up with 5 stitches in his chin and lip because there was no guard assuring the turning disk could not be used on both the up and down sides together.