Two Pickerington couples attended a neighborhood pool party last August with their children. The parents of a 5-year-old boy have since filed a civil suit in Fairfield County against the parents of a 15-year-old boy, seeking to hold them responsible for the actions of their teenage son for allegedly sexually assaulting the 5-year-old.
Earlier this month, Scott Macre, 43, of Upper Arlington, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of multiple misdemeanors after his 10-year-old daughter mistook his THC gummies for candy and shared some with four other students during lunch at Upper Arlington’s Windermere Elementary School. All five children became ill, requiring treatment at a local hospital.
Breana Mathews, 24, and Antwan Robinson, 44, are awaiting trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and endangering children after their 5-year-old daughter, Serenity, fatally shot herself on July 31 with an unattended firearm in the couple’s home on Columbus’ Northeast Side.
Situations like these are uncommon. And despite increased scrutiny of parental conduct in such cases, legal experts say Ohio and many other states have laws that limit the ways a parent can be held criminally and civilly liable for their child’s conduct.
“The general rule is parents are not responsible for the conduct of their kids,” said Susan Gilles, the John E. Sullivan Professor of Law at Capital University Law School.
“There’s this ‘kids do the darnedest things theory.’ Kids accidentally hurt other kids, and it looks negligent as an adult, but it’s really not.”
Three ways Ohio parents can be held civilly liable
Gilles said there are three specific ways under Ohio law in which parents can be held civilly liable for their child’s actions. In civil lawsuits, lawyers have to prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning more likely than not, instead of the criminal standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.
