Case Summaries 
of Importance to Counties

2012 Education

• Phillips v. Robertson County Board of Education, 37 TAM 41-6—A middle school student diagnosed with anxiety and Asperger’s disorders requested individualized education program from county school.  Student was tested but did not meet special education requirements; however, support team meetings were held to discuss the student’s issues and some accommodations were made by the school.  The accommodations included allowing the student to choose his seat and implementing a card system to let the student communicate with the teacher when he felt bullied or stressed.  While his teacher was out of the room, the student was involved in an incident with a classmate.  The classmate hit the student with a book rendering him blind in one eye.  The student’s mother sued the county board of education for negligence.  The trial court found for the student and the Court of Appeals affirmed the verdict.  The Court of Appeals found that the teacher was negligent for leaving the room unsupervised, the school system was negligent in failing to fully inform the teacher of the student’s condition and the incident was foreseeable on the part of the county board of education (September 11, 2012).