Organisers may have committed assault
CIVIL DEFENCE FORCE
IT was shocking to read about the 45 pupils of SK Beluru in Kuala Kangsar who were forced to wade through a muddy pit with a blood python thrown in by trainers from the Civil Defence Force during a team-building programme.
It was horrifying to see the video clip of the pupils shrieking. It was even more galling to see the pupils’ shrieks met with laughter by the trainers.
Merely condemning the trainers is insufficient.
Under the law, the organisers have committed an “assault”.
“Assault” is defined as “an intentional act by someone who creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact”.
An assault is established by a threat of bodily harm coupled with an apparent, present ability to cause the harm. It is a crime and a tort and is actionable in a criminal or civil court or both.
Parents of the pupils can file for damages under “nervous shock”.
The ordeal would have caused psychological trauma and probably left a scar on the children’s psyche. A psychiatric report should be obtained.
Four ingredients must be satisfied before a claim for damages under “nervous shock” can succeed:
THE existence of a duty of care, that is, the duty on the part of the defendant not to inflict nervous shock on the claimant;
A BREACH of the duty, that is, the defendant’s actions or omissions in of SK Beluru in Kuala Kangsar were made to wade through a
with a snake thrown into it.
the circumstances fell below what would be expected from a reasonable person in the circumstances;
A CAUSAL link between the breach and the psychiatric illness, that is, the nervous shock was the direct consequence of the defendant's breach of duty; and,
THE nervous shock was reasonably foreseeable as a consequence of the breach.
Here the elements appear to be
amply met for a civil action in court for appropriate damages.
A mere warning to the organisers not to repeat the episode would be insufficient given the grave circumstances of the incident where the pupils suffered such an undeserving trauma. It cannot be dismissed as a laughing matter.
SMALL TOWN