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| I wonder if anyone could give me any advice on how to handle a situation which arose recently.
My son is in the first year of the Sek. During the morning break a boy in his class came over and punched him on the arm. My son gave chase to this boy and grabbed him by the hood of his jacket. Pretty normal playground activity for boys aged 13/14.
However that evening the other child rang my son and said that the hood of his jacket was damaged and that my son would have to pay for it. The boy's mother was in the background but did not come to the 'phone nor did she ask to speak to me. My son said that he would talk to his parents about the matter.
I told my son to apologise for the damage at school the next day and tell the boy that his mother or father could ring us to discuss. The following day the boy said that it was up to us to call his mother and so we sent a brief written note stating that we were aware that accidental damage had been caused to an item of the boy's clothing following an unprovoked attack on our son and that if the parents thought there was anything further to discuss they could ring us. We heard nothing.
Tonight, some 3 weeks later, the boy rang and spoke to me (again his mother was in the background but refused to come to the 'phone). I said that we preferred it if one of his parents discussed the matter with my husband (due to my language ability) but explained that my husband was not at home as he was with clients. I said the boy's mother or father could call us on Monday. We then got into a protracted wrangle about who should ring who, ending with me stating that I simply would not discuss the matter with a child. During the conversation the boy told me that the jacket was brand new and cost CHF 400. Having been at a school visit day today and seeing the boy in question, I rather rudely told him that he didn't look like he wore clothes costing this sort of amount. He said that the jacket was a "windstopper" and assured me that this was the cost.
Naturally, I don't want my son damaging other people's property but am really unsure of how to handle this. I find it very odd that the other boy's parents won't get involved and expect me (or more accurately my son) to hand over CHF 400. Obviously I can ask them to produce a receipt and we need to check whether we have accidental damage liability insurance for our kids - a question the other boy asked me.
We are new to the area and I don't want to create bad feeling with other parents and obviously don't want any backlash at school for my son. On the other hand another boy told me that this family are weirdos and that he once had to pay CHF 5 when he damaged a buckle on this kid's belt.
Any advice or opinion would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance. | |
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As with a traffic accident: say nothing and refer the complainant to your insurer. If you have household insurance it almost certainly includes third-party liability and legal indemnity. Arguing about anything, and certainly admitting any facts, can only damage your case and compromise your insurance cover. And the other side will use your lack of language fluency against you.
(That said, in 1965 in Basel, when the VW I was driving was hit from behind while I was waiting to turn left, and the police told me I would be fined CHF 25, I demanded to see a judge -- who turned out not to speak a word of French or English. In my schoolboy German I defended myself and the case was dismissed.)
The liability of parents for damage done by children is so variable in time and space that I'm not going to opine on it. It would seem that the age of criminal responsibility in Switzerland may be as low as 7, but it is not obvious that any crime was committed here:
http://www.scotlawcom.gov.uk/downloa...l_response.pdf