Perna v. Conejo Valley Unified School Dist

In Perna v. Conejo Valley Unified School Dist. (1983) 143 Cal. App. 3d 292, a teacher asked a student to assist in grading papers after school. By the time the student and her sister left at 3 p.m., the crossing guard was no longer on duty at a dangerous intersection. The students were hit by a car as they crossed the street. ( Perna, supra, 143 Cal. App. 3d at p. 294.) The allegations were that the student-plaintiffs were kept after school by their teacher, "so that they were forced to cross an intersection at a time when the crossing guard was not there" (id. at p. 296), and the teacher knew (or should have known) this. The appellate court relied on section 44808 in ruling that a cause of action could be stated against the school district for negligence, on a theory that such conduct of the teacher in keeping the students on premises after school, when the students were later injured off premises after school, could have been a causative factor in the injuries. The court said, "Our decision does not rest on an alleged failure to supervise plaintiffs when they were off the school's premises." (Perna, supra, at p. 296.) The proximate cause of injury was a question of fact for the jury. (Ibid.)