Newport News School Board v. Z.M., a Minor

Holding

In a petition for appeal under Code § 8.01-626 and -670.1, a school board challenges a decision denying its plea of sovereign immunity, focusing on whether Code § 22.1-194 waives the Commonwealth’s sovereign immunity for degrading acts that school staff are alleged to have perpetrated on an autistic child — acts alleged to have happened on a school bus, but which do not implicate the operation of the bus as a means of transportation. It is here concluded that Code § 22.1-194, which waives sovereign immunity when “a vehicle [is] involved in an accident,” does not waive sovereign immunity on such alleged facts. Accordingly, the judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings.