Opinion
September 27, 1985
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Onondaga County, Tenney, J.
Present — Dillon, P.J., Doerr, Boomer, Green and Pine, JJ.
Order unanimously affirmed, without costs. Memorandum: The infant plaintiff was injured while in an eighthgrade English class taught by defendant Susan Easton in a junior high school in the defendant Central Square School District. The injury occurred prior to the commencement of class when a fellow student flipped his pen onto his desk causing the eraser to separate and strike the infant plaintiff in the eye. At the time of the incident, defendant Easton was standing in the doorway between the hall and the classroom pursuant to a directive in the faculty handbook which provided that "each teacher is expected to be in the halls during the passing of classes for the purpose of supervision."
Special Term properly granted summary judgment to defendants. A school board is not the insurer of the safety of students and a school teacher may be charged only with reasonable care such as a parent of ordinary prudence would exercise under comparable circumstances (Ohman v Board of Educ., 300 N.Y. 306, 309; Swiatkowski v Board of Educ., 36 A.D.2d 685, 686). It was the intervening act of the student, not the alleged failure of the teacher, which was the proximate cause of the infant plaintiff's injuries (see, Carrillo v Kreckel, 43 A.D.2d 499, 501; Swiatkowski v Board of Educ., 36 A.D.2d 685, 686, supra; Chmela v Board of Educ., 26 Misc.2d 10, 14-15, affd 17 A.D.2d 826, lv denied 13 N.Y.2d 599).