To what extent do Arizona schools have a duty to protect students from off-campus harm?
By Stefan Oakley. The Arizona Supreme Court, in Dinsmoor v. City of Phoenix et al., ruled that schools do not typically owe a duty of care to students who experience violence and/or injury after school. Rather, the duty a school owes to its students is a narrow one, strongly grounded in time and place, rather than based on foreseeability of harm occurring. The Court concluded the “key consideration is whether a known and tangible risk of harm arose that endangered the student while under the school’s custody and control.” Therefore, students who encounter harm off school grounds are likely out of the “custody and control” of the school. The facts that gave rise to Dinsmoor Dinsmoor involved the fatal shooting of a student, Ana, by another student, Michael, at a…