What critter says is true that the PTO is not liable and the school is becase they are the same thing however (and this is a BIG however) that does not mean the PTO board could not be held personally responsible for any damages since they participated in the planning of the event. The PTO exec board can ask for an indemnification letter from the school and their insurance company that states they are protected from any personal Liability.

When someone sues their lawyer will file suit against everyone and everything if they are legally able to. That is why it is so important to incorporate because that legally prevents someone from suing board members personally and can only sue the corporation.

I am going into a similar thing and hope I get a different outcome.

I am also not an attorney, nor an insurance agent, but.... You said something very important in your introduction. You said your PTO uses the school's EIN. That means you are a subcommittee of the school, not an independent parent group. The school holds the liability in this case, not your PTO because your PTO doesn't really exist as a separate entity if your money is being held in a bank account under the school's EIN. Have your principal call your district's business office and find out the limits of the district's insurance in this circumstance. You can also check with the dunk tank operator. They should have their own insurance.

Until your money is held in a bank acocunt under your PTO's own EIN, your group is a committee of the school. As such, the money actually belongs to the school. Someday, when your group is ready, you should carefully consider setting up an indenpendent parent group so you can protect your funds, and run your group as your members see fit.

Thank you for your time, PTSSQueen...This is exactly what I have been telling the other chairpersons, however, a few of them seem to not want to listen to it and have even called it "silly". We are having a board meeting tonight, and unfortunately I am turning in my resignation, really whether they get the insurance or not, because it is being run way too scary for me right now. I was so excited about the prospect of encouraging parental involvement and a sense of community, not to mention supporting the children. I just feel like there's a right way and a wrong way to do things in order to get anything accomplished, but they seem to want to keep things way too informal, and it just scares the dickens out of me. Anyway, way too much information, sorry, but thanks again for your input.

Hi there! I am NOT an attorney, but having run PTO/PTSS groups for the last 8 years, I would not have this type of activity (or any other, actually) without a group insurance policy. It is one of the riskiest events in the PTO world and I wouldn't advise doing it until you have liability insurance. Even a stray ball hitting someone in the crowd could cause a law suit. I know I'm not willing to lose my house over someone getting hurt in a PTO dunk tank.

Good luck with your new PTO group! 9 chairpeople sounds like a great start! Congrats!

Heather

Hi all,

I am one of the chairpersons for our school districts newly formed PTO...we had our first meeting in March. And just to give you a little more info on our group, we are a very small school district with very few PTO member which equals very limited funds, we don not have insurance, we are not incorporated, we use the school district's EIN, we do not have bylaws, and we do not have a president or treasurer, we operate with 9 chairpersons.

My question is regarding officer and group liability. We are sponsering a dunking booth at our towns annual "Jubiliee" as a fundraiser. The group is wanting to have teachers, admin, and school staff sit in the dunking booth as well as give random people at the Jubilee the opportunity to volunteer to sit in the booth and be dunked. A couple of us are a little concerned about the slim possiblity of someone getting injured while in the dunking booth and suing anyone from the individual chairpersons & PTO, to the school district and city.

The idea to have the dunk volunteers sign a "release of liability waiver" form was brought up, but strangly enough has been met with a lot of resistence by some of the chairpersons. After reading some of the articles regarding liability here on PTO today, I am wondering if even the waiver would be enough to cover us all, or if we should just forget the whole thing as well as future activities until we can afford insurance...I am also uncertain as to whether we would be covered under our school district insurance policy.

If any of you all can help with some info or experiences...that would be wonderful.

Thanks a bunch for your time,
Rya