Jay H. Ferrill v. Board Education Central School District No. 1

[6 A.D.2d 690 Page 690] In an action by an infant, a gradeschool student, to recover damages for personal injuries against the Board of Education,
which operated and maintained the school, and a teacher therein, the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the infant against
the Board of Education and in favor of the teacher against the infant. The Board of Education appeals from (1) so much of
the judgment entered thereon as is against it, and (2) from so much of an order as denied its motion to set aside the verdict
and to dismiss the complaint. The infant, then seven and a half years old, was in the school playground at the lunch recess,
under the supervision of two teachers. While ascending a slide, and when three steps from the top, a girl student in front
of the infant suddenly stood up on top of the steps to go down the slide head first, or what is commonly known as "belly-whopping".
In the course of this maneuver her foot struck the infant causing him to fall and sustain the injuries of which he complains.
There were between 125 and 150 children of [6 A.D.2d 690 Page 691]