School security must be effective

The Court of Cassation (judgement 33020/2026) has clarified that childcare workers have a duty to supervise the children in their care and cannot simply be present on the premises: supervision must be practical and effective, particularly when children find themselves in situations where dangerous behaviour may occur.

The incident involves two nursery teachers at a nursery and play centre. During a party organised in the centre’s gym, a little girl was repeatedly struck by another child and sustained an injury to her face, with a prognosis of seven days.

According to the Court of Cassation, the childcare workers were obliged to supervise the children in their care. They could not, therefore, delegate this task to other staff members and were required to maintain adequate supervision even during a party or social gathering. In the case in question, however, it had not been made clear exactly whether they had actually left the group, for how long, and how far away from the children they had gone.

In the Court’s view, therefore, it is not sufficient to state, in general terms, that the teachers failed to supervise the children. It is necessary to reconstruct, in concrete terms, what happened in the moments immediately preceding the assault. It is true that the mere physical presence of a teacher does not automatically amount to adequate supervision, but nor can every incident involving children be attributed to a lack of supervision. The specific circumstances must be assessed: the age and number of the children, the location, the activity taking place, and what could have been foreseen and prevented.