From a Google News alert, this follow-up from last year's incident that hurt a student:
DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. — A Dinwiddie High School Chemistry teacher is back at work one year after an explosion in their classroom during a science experiment, according to a spokeswoman for Dinwiddie County Public Schools. The explosion, on October 12, 2022, happened during an experiment using methanol.
Four students and a teacher were treated for injuries. One student was so badly injured, they were hospitalized in the intensive care unit.
CBS 6 learned the Dinwiddie Sheriff’s Office and the Dinwiddie County Division of Fire and EMS presented the findings of their investigation into the incident to the former Commonwealth’s Attorney for Dinwiddie County, Ann Cabell Baskerville.
Both said it was up to her whether she wanted to press charges against the teacher.
She opted not to press charges.
We reached out to Baskerville to learn more about why, and we are waiting to hear back.
Since then, Dinwiddie County Public Schools told CBS 6 the teacher is back to work at the school.
It seems to me that if we continue to have a lack of consequences for running this demonstration poorly, we will continue to have hurt kids.
I think having to live with the fact that you seriously hurt multiple students is a pretty serious consequence. It sounds like you want legal consequences on top of that. I wonder if this incident was before or after ACS recommended against doing this demonstration?
ReplyDeleteACS recommended against the Rainbow Demonstration in 2014: https://chemjobber.blogspot.com/2014/02/acs-committee-on-chemical-safety-stop.html
DeleteRegarding consequences, it seems to me there are intermediary consequences between "feeling guilty" and "going to prison." Losing one's job seems to me to be a reasonable middle ground, especially well into dozens of hurt students from the Rainbow Demonstration in 2006.
The only comment on that old post did not age well, to say the least.
DeleteIf you get kids hurt because you were egregiously stupid (pouring solvent around open flame and doing an experiment that people have been told - repeatedly - not to do), then there ought to be some assurance for the school, parents, and kids that you won't do that again. There ought to be assurance that the teacher's judgment or ability to take such risks is mitigated. Without such, it would seem to be a legal issue for the school and the district.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the equivalent to having an accident were someone gets hurt while drunk driving for a teacher - you didn't intend to hurt people, but you did something you knew was stupid and got people hurt. If you were a delivery person (let alone a truck driver), a DUI injury accident would likely be a career-limiting (if not career-terminating) event. - Hap
Safety in chemical educational settings is the larger problem. Unfortunately, it's cultural...the hardest kind of problem to solve.
ReplyDeleteOof, I’m torn.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, school teachers don’t need more difficulties in their lives while doing a thankless but important job.
On the other, this specific teacher showed such blatant disregard for basic safety you wonder how qualified they are.
I say at least some of the fault lies with the admin who did the hiring 😬 And surely there should be some basic safety training required of teachers who don’t have existing lab experience.
Can you imagine trying to get a Hot Work Permit for this at any industrial facility? I think I'd be fired just for the stupidity of such a request.
ReplyDelete