A Middlesbrough schoolgirl has been awarded over £11,000 in accident compensation after she was inadvertently scalded by a teacher’s piping hot coffee.
The six-year-old was burned when the coffee fell from the teacher’s desk onto her. Newspaper reports detail how the children had been asked to lie quietly on the floor whilst the teacher went to make a drink. When the teacher returned, they reportedly balanced the drink on a table edge but it was somehow knocked off.
As the drink was freshly made and didn’t contain any milk to cool it down, it burned the little girl’s back when it splashed onto her. The girl’s mother said her daughter had skin hanging from her back after the accident and that she had undergone a significant amount of pain and suffering.
According to the Evening Gazette newspaper, the youngster’s injuries were so severe that she required plastic surgery over four years and still has scarring from the incident. Medical experts have described the scar as “significant”. The accident compensation payout of £11,157 will be used to pay for private treatment, the lawyer for the girl’s family said.
Schools have individual rules on health and safety but many have policies which ask teachers not to take hot drinks into classrooms when children will be present.