By Kevin Lungwitz
This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some best practices for staying in the schoolhouse and out of the courthouse. Please feel free to share these widely among your professional staff.
1. If Time Permits, In Difficult Situations, Two Heads Are Better Than One: If you have a controversial decision to make or an angry staffer or parent to respond to, have your supervisor or your assistant think it through with you. Bringing your assistant into a sticky situation and valuing their input is also good mentoring. If you fear your decision could trigger legal action, firmly request the school lawyer review it before it is released. Should things take a turn for the worse after your decision is made, at least the rationale will have been vetted by others, thereby minimizing errors and bolstering its credibility.
2. If Time Doesn’t Permit, Do What Is Best for Student Safety: If you must act in an emergency, let student safety be your north star. Decision-makers such as courts, school boards, the TEA and CPS will be more likely to forgive if they understand the pressure you were under and if you are able to articulate that student safety guided your decision.
3. Keep All of Your Communications Professional, Including Texts, Which You Should Not Use: Would you be okay with seeing your professional notes posted in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal? Or read at a school board meeting or on the local news? If not, don’t send it. Also, texting your assistant after hours about the student or staff disciplinary issue today is not the end-run around open records you might think. Those texts might be disclosable under the Public Information Act to the angry parent or staffer. It is best to confine your professional communications to the school district’s platforms where everyone is attuned to professionalism. While we are on the subject, you should assume the angry parent or staffer is recording your phone call or meeting. Act accordingly.
Additionally, do not become too comfortable with how you communicate with staff. More than one principal has mistakenly believed they had personal confidants with whom they could gossip freely about the intimate private lives of staff, students and parents when actually the “confidants” were merely tolerating the boorish behavior because of your position of power. It is lonely at the top for a reason. Your ascendance to a supervisory position means you need to respect the physical and personal boundaries of others and always be professional.
4. Stay Within the Boundaries of Protocols, Policies, and Your Job Description: You have legal immunity from personal injury claims if you are doing your job. Immunity is a legal suit of armor that protects you from negligence lawsuits. If you follow normal protocols and something goes wrong—even if you make a mistake—you cannot be successfully sued for negligence.1 Negligence is a legal claim alleging that you mistakenly did—or failed to do—something that caused harm to another. If the lawsuit claims, for instance, you negligently hired, trained, or supervised staff, or negligently supervised children, it will not likely succeed. But—see below.
5. Do Not Use Corporal Punishment: If your job involves corporal punishment, you could be civilly and criminally liable for injuries. Corporal punishment is only lawful where the school board has authorized it, and it means “the deliberate infliction of physical pain by hitting, paddling, spanking, slapping, or any other physical force used as a means of discipline.”2 You have no legal immunity if you use “excessive force or negligence in discipline.”3 One swat too many, one swat too hard, and the sheriff, CPS, the school board, the TEA, and parents will seek to hold you accountable. Everyone who told you it was okay to do this, including the school board and the parents who signed the form and okayed it over the phone, will turn on you when the parents show pictures of bruises and injuries to the authorities. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain by using corporal punishment.
6. Never Use Force In Anger—Tap In, Tap Out: You have a right to use reasonable force to maintain discipline in a group and to protect the health and safety of the campus community.4 We are not talking about premeditated corporal punishment, but rather the normal contact educators have with children lining them up for lunch, helping a first-grader with a rain coat, delivering instruction in P.E., etc., and contact made for safety reasons or group order. Is a student’s tantrum absolutely wearing you out? Call for help and tap out. If a teacher is losing control of a class or a student, tap in for five minutes. Most primary educators could not do their job without making some sort of physical contact with students, but if contact is made in anger, the educator is on thin ice.
7. Call CPS Immediately Any Time Someone Suggests a Student is Being Mistreated: If someone hints at child abuse taking place on your campus, call CPS within 48 hours, and immediately report it to your supervisors and H.R. (Call 911 in an emergency.) Failure to timely report is a jailable offense. “What if I am not sure about the allegation? Should I investigate before I report?” No. Make the report. Do not investigate the allegation before calling CPS. Any attempts you make to verify the allegation before reporting is time wasted in reporting. You are a busy administrator. Move this off your desk and onto CPS’s desk.
8. Keep Parents Regularly Informed Especially When Odd Things Happen: Failure to promptly notify a parent when their child is involved in an incident will fuel speculation of a cover-up. Parents may be angry about the incident, but they will be angrier, and potentially more litigious, if they find out about it before you tell them. Have staff document communications with parents about student progress. This documentation will come in handy when the parent claims no knowledge of their child failing the class due to not turning in homework.
9. Regulary and Fairly Document Staff Performance: The best way to defeat a claim of discrimination or retaliation is with steady, objective, performance-based documentation. You may not need much documentation to terminate a probationary contract teacher at the end of the school year, but if the teacher alleges discrimination or retaliation, you will need to produce something to the school district lawyers or EEOC, etc. Producing documentation is step one. Step two is demonstrating you documented this teacher just like you documented—or would have documented—other teachers for the same conduct. People will want to know: Do you have something to back up the termination? Did you treat the teacher fairly?
10. Know Where to Find Applicable School Board Policies: The Texas Association of School Boards school policy manuals almost every school district uses are a wealth of legal information. Policies are a compendium of state and federal school laws. Whenever I have to study an issue I am not familiar with, I will often start with the board policies for an overview. You should, too. They are on every school district website, usually under the School Board tab. If you can quickly reference these policies, you will have answers to many school law questions. Those answers will likely keep you in the schoolhouse and out of the courthouse.
Kevin Lungwitz practices law in Austin and is a former Chair of the School Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Endnotes
1See Tex. Educ. Code §22.0511
2Board policy FO (legal); Tex. Educ. Code Sec. 37.0011(a)
3See Tex. Educ. Code §22.0511
4See Tex. Penal Code Sec. 9.62
TEPSA News, August 2025, Vol 82, No 4
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Note: Information from Legal Ease is believed to be correct upon publication but is not warranted and should not be considered legal advice. Please contact TEPSA or your school district attorney before taking any legal action, as specific facts or circumstances may cause a different legal outcome.
