2021 Georgia Code
Title 20 - Education
Chapter 2 - Elementary and Secondary Education
Article 18A - Liability of Educators for Disciplining Students
§ 20-2-1001. Limited Immunity From Criminal Liability
- As used in this Code section, the term "educator" means any principal, school administrator, teacher, school counselor, paraprofessional, school bus driver, volunteer assisting teachers in the classroom, tribunal members, or certificated professional personnel.
- An educator shall be immune from criminal liability for any act or omission concerning, relating to, or resulting from the discipline of any student or the reporting of any student for misconduct, provided that the educator acted in good faith.
(Code 1981, §20-2-1001, enacted by Ga. L. 1997, p. 1436, § 11; Ga. L. 2013, p. 1061, § 33/HB 283.)
Editor's notes.- Ga. L. 1997, p. 1436, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the Act shall be known and may be cited as the "School Safety Act."
Law reviews.- For article commenting on the enactment of this Code section, see 14 Ga. St. U.L. Rev. 155 (1997).
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Educator entitled to immunity.
- When the defendant, a special education teacher, was indicted on six counts of cruelty to children and five counts of false imprisonment for actions involving five students, the defendant was entitled to the benefits of the immunity statute because the evidence was sufficient to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant's actions were undertaken to maintain discipline and restore order in the defendant's classroom; and that the defendant acted in good faith as the defendant told an investigator that the defendant's actions were never malicious, that the defendant never tried to hurt any of the students, and that whatever the defendant did with the students was aimed at helping the students. State v. Pickens, 330 Ga. App. 862, 769 S.E.2d 594 (2015), cert. denied, 2015 Ga. LEXIS 403 (Ga. 2015).
Potential immunity did not impact probable cause finding.- Court properly dismissed the paraprofessional educator's amended civil-rights complaint because there was probable cause in the affidavit for a warrant for the educator's arrest for committing simple battery, the educator's potential immunity was not relevant to the probable-cause analysis, and the educator did not state a claim of supervisor liability against the principal of the school in which the arresting officer worked. Elmore v. Fulton County Sch. Dist., 605 Fed. Appx. 906 (11th Cir. 2015)(Unpublished).
