Negligent supervision differs from security. Negligent supervision occurs when a person maintains a legal responsibility to supervise others and fails to do it in a reasonable manner.
The types of people in need of supervision includes children, the elderly, and work place employees.
Children
Negligent supervision of children involves a wide range of supervisors. These include teachers, daycare providers, babysitters, nannies, coaches, camp counselors, and church youth group leaders.
Supervising children requires anticipating potential dangerous situations and preventing them. For instance, a daycare provider must keep children away from vicious animals, swimming pools, traffic, knifes and firearms, dangerous chemicals, matches, and much more.
Children with lots of energy tend to run around making it difficult to maintain close supervision. As a result, children run into immovable objects, slip and fall, and run out of facilities when nobody notices.
The Elderly
Hawaii senior citizens in need of living assistance reside in adult residential care homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities or community care foster family homes.
These facilities employ large staffs. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities maintain a high duty to supervise their activities. Like children, elderly suffering from alzheimers or dementia need constant supervision.
Negligent supervision of the elderly may come in these forms:
- Neglecting to supervise assisted living patients who get into accidents or injuries.
- Failing to provide basic hygiene care resulting in infections or sores.
- Failure to report abuse leading to injuries.
- Not keeping track of patients who wander off.
- Failing to prevent falls.
Employees
Negligent employee supervision comes under failing to protect employees from dangerous use of equipment or other employee’s foreseeable dangerous behavior.
Negligent supervision of work place employees could occur under these circumstances:
- Failing to prevent work place sexual harassment or not stopping it when notified.
- Allowing work place bullying or violence.
- Not stopping an employee engaging in reckless behavior
- Failing to properly train employees in the use of dangerous tools or chemicals.
- Allowing an employee under the influence of alcohol or drugs to operate machinery.