Some educators adopt a hands-on approach to teaching, whilst others opt for a more subtle or impersonal style. Students tend to appreciate one style of teaching over another, with many pupils deriving benefits from one-on-one tutoring as others prosper in distinctly hands-off environments. Naturally, some children require greater attention than others. After all, children learn, develop and mature at different rates and in different ways. It is not very often, however, that an 18-year-old student of allegedly sound mind and intelligence must be told not to play with electrical cables – a trick that ought to have been picked up in pre-school.
On the 11th March this year, Kyle Dubois, a student from the city of Dover in New Hampshire, USA, decided it would be somewhat hilarious to attach electrical clamps to both of his nipples before turning on the power switch. Egged on by his fellow students, one of whom helped to attach a clamp to his nipple whilst another plugged in the power cable, Mr Dubois proceeded to electrocute himself in the name of comedy. Unfortunately – but not surprisingly – the 18-year-old suffered more than a pair of singed nipples; indeed, the student was reported to have sustained heart failure and brain damage as a result of the incident. Remarkably, Mr Dubois and his parents are now claiming compensation from the school district and the city of Dover authorities on the grounds that the supervising teacher, Thomas Kelley, failed to mention that playing with electrical cables and clamps could be dangerous.
In the UK, personal injury claims can be successfully argued if it can be shown that the defendant owed a duty of care to the claimant at the time of the accident, that the duty of care was breached and that the breach caused the harm in both a legal and factual sense. According to the facts that were reported in the media, it would seem that Mr Dubois ought to take the lion's share of responsibility for his injuries. In a legal sense, Mr Kelley did owe a duty of care to Mr Dubois at the time of the incident. But whether or not it could be argued that Mr Dubois' decision to turn himself into post-festive Christmas tree decoration was caused by Mr Kelley, is considerably less clear. Reports on Mr Kelley's precise role in the incident are conflicting, with one source suggesting that the teacher offered to reward Mr Dubois with a bottle of water upon completion of the stunt.
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