Allow me to me paint the picture.On a Nov. 4, 2004, a middle school student was raped as she made her way home from school, presumably on foot. Her mother claimed the incident would not have happened had her daughter not been allowed to ride the school bus as requested. A year later the lawsuit was filed.

The state high court has already heard the case once before, in June 2007, but ruled the case was to go back to trial. In doing so, it reversed a previous decision by the 15th Judicial District Court to dismiss the case. But, once again, the case was dismissed as the judge found that no proof of negligence existed on the part of the school district. After an appeal, the 3rd Circuit found that the school district was 20 percent at fault and failed to meet "its duty of supervision and disregarded its obligation to provide transportation to all students." The court awarded the student $100,000 and her mother $20,000. That was last July.

The school board was denied a request for a rehearing in September, despite arguments from the defendant's attorney that no "executable" majority opinion was reached because the consenting judges gave different reasons for their decision. So, the case is headed back to New Orleans.

In a day and age when so many actual actions of a school transportation department, or lack there of, which ever the case may be, it's surprising to see that transportation may actually influence potential liability if it denies transportation to a student. It's unclear if the student was eligible for services or not, but it makes you wonder.