Legal Question in Personal Injury in Idaho

I am 23 years old, female, 4'11", and I volunteer at a local Youth Center. We let teenagers 13-19 years of age hang out at the Center, play video games, use the computer, watch cable TV, play foosball, and play pool. As a volunteer, I supervise the Center by myself once a week from 6pm to 10pm. I have supervised from 1 to 30 teens at the Center.
My biggest fear is being sued by a parent for negligent supervision. Should one of their children be injured, harassed, bullied, exposed to vulgar language while I am in charge, are they likely to sue me and win? Am I at all protected as a volunteer? I have a good paying job as a professional and fear losing what I've earned hard to gain.
Without any training nor experience to back me, I try to keep rough housing and profanity to a minimum and try to enforce a no-tolerance towards bullying, harassment, and violence. However, it's very difficult to watch everyone all the time, not to mention highly stressful. There has been a serious injury once where a teenager's foot was fractured after she tripped while dancing, but the incident fortunately has come and gone (hopefully). This illustrates that it might be impossible to keep everyone completely safe.
Am I liable for these kids? How can I protect myself? Should I stop volunteering for fear of possible legal repercussion?
Thank you so much for your input!

Asked on 2/25/10, 9:36 pm

Kurt Holzer Hepworth Holzer, LLP

0 users found helpful

0 attorneys agreed

Your biggest fear was created by lies the insurance industry tells the world about liability issues.

The Youth Center far more likely than not has appropriate insurance that would cover your actions.

Regardless if you act reasonably under the circumstances no matter who gets hurt you wont be liable

Answered on 3/03/10, 10:42 am

Keywords

Match Any Match All

Country

State

Area of Law