There is only one thing that will bring Lexington-Richland School District 5 to its metaphorical knees in fear, and it’s not food fights in the cafeteria. No, District 5’s biggest phobia is much bigger: lawsuits.

Many people, like Sophomore Dalton Lillard, find this fear silly.

“I think it’s ridiculous how scared the school is of lawsuits. Do they really think that people are going to actually sue them?,” Lillard said.

While it seems that the chances of a lawsuit are slim, people can sue over nearly anything. A woman once won $650,000 from McDonalds for spilling coffee on herself. If someone were to slip and injure themselves, they could sue on the basis there should have been a “Wet Floor” sign, and they would be likely to win.

“The thing about laws is that no one says they are right or wrong. They’re just there. If someone wants to challenge anything, they can,” Principal Akil Ross said.

School administrators like Ross have to follow a policy of “due diligence.” Due diligence is a measure of prudence, activity, or assiduity, as is properly to be expected from, and ordinarily exercised by, a reasonable and prudent person under the particular circumstances; not measured by any absolute standard but depends on the relative facts of the special case. They are constantly looking for situations in which they could be sued. Unfortunately, lawsuits aren’t a fear easily taken care of, like squishing a spider with a big shoe, and they can drag on for years. (Not only can someone file a lawsuit on the basis of safety, but also for harassment or the violation of their rights.) If a student is being bullied at school, it is the responsibility of the administrators to do everything in their power to stop it.

Andrea White, an attorney that works with the district, says that in order to avoid being sued administrators and teachers go through a lot of training, and policies regarding problem areas such as bullying are adopted.

“It’s important to remember that just because there is a lawsuit, it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. It’s just that someone is challenging your interpretation of the law,” Ross said.

Lawsuits tend to cost a lot of money, so the schools always try to mediate the situation to keep it out of court. Although they may try to get the opposing party to understand their view of the law, the school will never appease someone just to save the money.

“People looking to strong arm the school district get their way if we cave. If one of them gets what they want, then everyone will think that a lawsuit will let them get their way,” science teacher Robert Schiferl said.

If you bend the rules for one person, you have to for everyone.

“You have to have a principle for why you are making a decision or a policy, and you have to stick to it. If one person is allowed to do something independent of others, then other people will do other independent things, and that will create issues for the institution at large. We don’t want that,” Ross said.

 “I would say that there are some of what I would consider to be frivolous suits. I have had a number of very interesting cases over the years—including one where a student’s parent took a district to the SC Supreme Court over a one-day in school suspension,” District Attorney White said.

Junior Colton Beasley agrees.

“I think that in general, lawsuits against schools are completely ignorant because most of the time they are over ridiculous matters and usually won’t benefit anyone. I can’t even understand why someone would want to sue a local school where money is already tight because they are hurting the kids who go to that school and creating more problems for everyone involved,” Beasley said.

In the end, CHS won’t let fear stop them from doing what they need to.

“If you think it’s the right thing to do you better go ahead and do it. People may sue. You can’t stop that. But if it’s going to help somebody, if it’s the best thing for your school, you need to do it,” Ross said.