Did Former Child Abuse Reporting Law Allow Subjective Analysis of Whether Abuse ‘Suspected’?
Donald T. Kraynak v. Youngstown City School District Board of Education et al., Case no. 2007-0740 7th District Court of Appeals (Mahoning County) ISSUE: Under a former version of a state law that requires certain professionals to report known or suspected child abuse, was a judge or jury deciding a civil claim against a teacher for failing to report abuse supposed to: a) apply the objective standard of whether what the teacher observed would cause a reasonable person to suspect abuse, or b) apply the subjective standard of whether, under the circumstances of that specific case, the teacher’s conduct indicated that she actually suspected abuse, but failed to report it? BACKGROUND: This case involves a civil lawsuit filed by Donald Kraynak of Youngstown against the Youngstown City School District and teacher Helen Marino, who taught a 4th-grade language arts class in which Kraynak’s son, Derek, was enrolled during the 1999 school year. The suit seeks damages from the school district (Ma
