How Safe are School Field Trips?
The Canada Safety Council is encouraging parents to ask questions about safety on their children's school outings.
" Most parents sign the consent form and assume their child will be safe," says Canada Safety Council president Emile Therien. "Yet thousands of injuries and even a few deaths happen every year on school outings."
The Canada Safety Council identified this issue a couple of years ago. In 2000 there were seven fatalities on school field trips. In Ontario, two elementary school children drowned when their tour boat sank in bad weather, and two high school students were killed at a workplace they were visiting as part of a school program. Also that year, two Calgary students and a parent chaperone drowned when they were swept into the ocean while on a beach hike in California.
During the first half of 2002, an Ontario teenager was killed and another became a quadriplegic from injuries suffered on school ski trips, and a Winnipeg girl drowned on a school-sponsored swimming trip.
Mr. Therien maintains that parents have a right to ask for assurance that precautions have been taken. How does the school plan to ensure the children's safety during the outing? What are the potential hazards? Have there been mishaps on similar trips? How have they been addressed? How many adults will be supervising? What are their qualifications? What is expected of the children? What is the educational value of the trip?
He says parents should find out the details of the trip, give written permission for their child to go, and reinforce the behavior expectations. He thinks liability issues will bring many popular school activities under increased scrutiny.
A Balancing Act
School administrators have the responsibility of deciding where to draw the line between student safety and real-world learning experiences.
Sometimes a principal must say no to a proposed activity or impose precautions that seem unreasonable. This can produce vocal opposition from students and parents. The activities that generate the most controversy tend to be those with little relationship to the curriculum, which have mainly recreation, social or entertainment objectives.
"Schools are under increasing pressure to organize field trips to theme parks, recreational facilities and resorts," says David Beal, risk management co-ordinator for the Ontario School Boards' Insurance Exchange (OSBIE). "Organizers need to measure the educational value against the chances of injury."
An activity that might be perfectly safe in a family setting may not be safe in a school setting where the level of supervision can't be guaranteed. Some suggested activities have obvious risks. For instance, anyone proposing a rock climbing expedition or a trip to a war zone to "experience history in the making" (these are actual requests) can expect to be turned down.
During the Canadian winter, field trips often center on snow sports. Skiing and snowboarding represent over 40 per cent of the injuries reported on school field trips. Snowblading and tubing, relatively new activities, are also high-risk, and require a high level of supervision as well as expertise.
Snow and ice sliding (sledding and tobogganing) may seem less risky. However, they can cause serious injuries to children. Although the number of claims and injuries are relatively few, when an injury occurs, it is serious. This activity accounts for 25 per cent of insurance payments for field trips.
Managing Risks on School Outings
OSBIE insures 90% of the publicly funded school boards in Ontario. It receives reports of thousands of injuries each year to students on school field trips, some resulting in permanent disability and even death.
"The most tragic part of these incidents," says Mr. Beal, "is that most could have been prevented by simple risk management."
Risk management is a systematic approach to prevent or reduce exposure to losses. It involves identifying and analyzing risks or hazards, and taking steps to remove or control risks that may cause injury. Evaluating the risk profile of an activity is frequently based on intuition and professional experience, rather than on hard scientific or medical evidence.
Because it is an imprecise science, applying risk management to school activities can lead to objections from parents or students. Restrictions may be seen as inconvenient, expensive, unreasonable, or even an infringement of personal liberties.
Risk identification and analysis is the first critical stage for each proposed activity. What are the known risks and how much exposure to injury do they pose? Has someone pre-visited and checked the site? What qualifications and training should the adults in charge have?
Schools should not sponsor activities with a high chance of injury unless the risks can be removed. If this is not possible, the activity must be vetoed, often to the chagrin of some students and parents.
In many cases, hazards can be reduced or removed by following safety standards or guidelines. These can be internal policies and procedures, or can originate from external organizations such as athletic associations, safety organizations or regulating authorities. For instance, they may require precautions such as the use of proper safety equipment, or they may require organizers and operators to train and supervise the participants.
School trips and outings often involve outside commercial vendors or operators such as amusement park operators, ski resorts, excursion or tour operators, or equipment suppliers. Schools must ensure that service providers are reputable, have effective safety measures in place, and accept responsibility for any negligent acts of their employees.
When a school outing ends in serious injury, a lapse in risk management can usually be identified. Perhaps risks were not assessed properly at the planning stage, or safety rules were not enforced during the event itself. Good risk management practices can prevent most serious mishaps.
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