context: It was not intended to diminish the duty of care that a school owes its students to provide reasonably safe school premises for school-related activities, including interscholastic sports. "Personal injury from defective premises ... is not a risk that schoolchildren should, as matter of public policy, be required to run in return for the benefit of a public education."
citation_a.signal: cf.
citation_a.identifier: 441 Mass. 236, 236
citation_a.parenthetical: because municipalities need no "encouragement to open their schools for parent-teacher conferences," applying recreational use statute to parent's slip and fall on ice in school walkway on parent-teacher night "would upend the balance that the Legislature intended to strike 'between encouraging public access to private land and protecting landowners from liability for injuries' "
citation_a.sentence: Cf. Wilkins v. Haverhill, 468 Mass. 86, 91 n.9 (2014), quoting Ali, 441 Mass. at 236 (because municipalities need no “encouragement to open their schools for parent-teacher conferences,” applying recreational use statute to parent’s slip and fall on ice in school walkway on parent-teacher night “would upend the balance that the Legislature intended to strike ‘between encouraging public access to private land and protecting landowners from liability for injuries’ ”).
citation_b.signal: see
citation_b.identifier: 35 Mass. App. Ct. 142, 145
citation_b.parenthetical: "Because of the relationship between a school and its students, the city had a duty of care to the plaintiff to provide her with reasonably safe school premises"
citation_b.sentence: See Alter v. Newton, 35 Mass. App. Ct. 142, 145 (1993) (“Because of the relationship between a school and its students, the city had a duty of care to the plaintiff to provide her with reasonably safe school premises”).* ** Therefore, the recreational use statute does not alter the standard of care that a school owes its own students arising from its special relationship with its students, and would not protect the town from liability for negligence claims brought against it by students enrolled in its own public schools for injuries sustained while the students were engaged in school-related activities.