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BOSTON—A high school mathematics teacher is entitled to workers compensation benefits for an injury she suffered while serving as a chaperone for the school’s ski club, Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday.
The teacher’s employer, the self-insured city of Peabody, Mass., sought to deny medical benefits for a 2004 shoulder injury, arguing it occurred while the teacher voluntarily participated in a recreational activity, court records in Karen Sikorski’s Case show.
The high court’s ruling upheld a Department of Industrial Accidents finding that the recreational aspect of serving as a chaperone was incidental to the teacher’s duties of monitoring student safety.
“We affirm the (DIA) decision because we conclude that a teacher who acts as a chaperone to students participating in a school-sponsored activity is acting in the course of her employment and is not engaged in ‘recreational" activity,’” the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled.