Posted December 11, 2009

By Boston.com

The state’s highest court has upheld workers’ compensation coverage for a Peabody High School teacher who was injured in a skiing accident on a field trip.

The Supreme Judicial Court, in a four-page decision written by Justice Judith Cowin, says it concluded that a teacher acting as a chaperone on a school-sponsored activity is “acting in the course of her employment.”

The city of Peabody had claimed that Karen Sikorski, who injuried her shoulder in a fall, was not entitled to workers’ compensation because she was voluntarily participating in a recreational activity during the 2004 ski trip.