What You Saw and What You Said
A child bullied at school, an initiation at college, the duty to pick up the phone, and the report that got somebody punished at work
Your daughter's school says the messages are between students and not its concern. They have gone on for a month.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
School discipline, the penalty for failing to make a child abuse report, the confidentiality of a reporter's identity, the institutional duties Ohio placed on colleges about hazing, which violations the whistleblower section reaches, and the public employee provisions are not walked here. Nothing on this page says whether particular conduct was hazing, whether a suspicion was reasonable, or whether a particular report was made the way the section requires.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
11 words · tap one for its definition
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- HazingDoing any act, or coercing another including the victim to do any act, of initiation into an organization or to continue or reinstate membership in one, that causes or creates a substantial risk of causing mental or physical harm to any person, including coercing another to consume alcohol or a drug of abuse.
- Personal representative of the estateThe executor or administrator of a deceased person's estate. A wrongful death action is brought in this person's name, for the benefit of the surviving spouse, children, parents and other next of kin, rather than by any of them in their own right.
- Public recordA record kept by a public office that the office makes available for inspection promptly and copies at cost, unless a statute exempts it. Everybody is a requester on the same terms, and nobody has to explain why they want one.
- School safety zoneA school building, the premises of a school, a school activity and a school bus. The zone is what the offense attaches to rather than the building alone.
- Disciplinary or retaliatory actionWhat the whistleblower section forbids an employer doing to an employee for making a report the section authorizes, where the employee made a reasonable and good faith effort to determine the accuracy of what was reported. A civil action over it is brought within one hundred eighty days of the action.
- ReinstatementThe right of somebody who fell behind on a rental purchase agreement to put the original agreement back without losing any rights or options already acquired, where the property was surrendered when requested.
- DegreeThe classification every Ohio offense carries, from minor misdemeanor up to felony of the first degree. The degree sets the available range before anyone looks at the facts.
- Liquidated damagesA figure fixed in advance by statute or contract rather than proved after the fact. On unpaid wages it is six percent of the amount unpaid or two hundred dollars, whichever is greater.
- Willful or wanton disregardThe mental state the reckless operation section requires. Willful is an intentional departure from a clear duty; wanton is a failure to use any care with indifference to the consequences where the probability of harm is great and known.
- Mandated reporterA person in one of the professions the statute lists who, acting in an official or professional capacity, knows or has reasonable cause to suspect that a child under eighteen has suffered or faces a threat of abuse or neglect, and who therefore reports it immediately to the public children services agency or a peace officer.
- Qualified immunityA defense protecting an official sued individually unless the right they violated was clearly established at the time, meaning existing precedent had put the question beyond debate.