Are we able to sue our son's public school for punitive damages?

Our teenager was using a planer in tech class. He was not supervised by the tech teacher who gave permission to the older students to work on their projects on their own. Our son was using the planer incorrectly and lost his balance when the piece of wood kicked back because the blade was dull. His hand went forward and hit the saw blade. The guard on the blade has not worked properly for at least a year and the spring tension doesn't work. The blade took off the entire nail on his middle finger and the very tip.