• Safety Tips:
• School Safety: Using Risk to Assess School Trips
• Community Safety:The Internet, Your Kids and You.
• Statistics: Helmets and Safety
• One Opinion: Open to Discussion

School Safety: Using Risk to Assess School Trips

As we head into the final months of the school year, many schools will close out the year by planning field trips for the children. Some trips will be educational; others are planned with only fun in mind. And, depending on the ages of the children involved, some may involve overnight stays, while others will only last a few hours. As might be expected, quite a bit of planning and preparation go into these trips to make sure the children are safe while away from school.

Unfortunately, regardless how much planning and preparation is done or how many precautions are taken, accidents sometimes still occur. As a result, many school districts are taking a harder look at their school trip policies and adopting a risk-based approach to determining the types of trips their children will be permitted to take.

For example, in Canada, the Ontario School Boards Insurance Exchange (OSBIE), the main supplier of property and liability insurance to school boards in that province, recently recommended that school boards evaluate potential field trips using a model that looks at three different risk factors: avoidance, assessment and reduction.

To determine if risk avoidance is the appropriate approach, the OSBIE suggests school officials ask if the trip is necessary. It's important to point out that while the OSBIE is not suggesting that trips be eliminated entirely, care should be taken to weigh the educational value against the potential for injury.

If the decision is made to proceed with the trip, a thorough evaluation should be made to determine the potential for injury to occur (risk assessment) and identify precautions that can help reduce the likelihood of those accidents (risk reduction).

Here's an example. In Canada, many schools plan ski and snowboard trips for their students. Given the fact that there is little (if any) educational value to this activity, given the amount of risk inherent in these sports, the OSBIE suggests the schools consider safer alternatives.

Clearly, the potential for injury can never be totally eliminated. But, with some planning and investigation, the likelihood of a serious injury occurring an be greatly reduced.

Community Safety: The Internet, Your Kids and You

Like it or not, The Internet is here to stay. We use it at work, in school and in our homes. Many people rely on the Internet each day to stay in touch with family and friends, conduct business, and shop. As a result, kids are becoming proficient at Internet surfing at increasingly younger ages. For parents, this means taking extra steps to make sure our kids remain safe while online.

Even so, many parents struggle with maintaining the proper balance between trusting their children and keeping tabs on their stops in cyberspace. While it certainly isn't practical (or necessary) to sit with your child each time they venture online, it is wise to keep tabs on their online activity.

Much has already been written, both here and in other publications, about the importance of knowing where children spend their time in cyberspace, limiting access to chat rooms and making sure kids steer clear of sites that contain adult content, yet, the bottom line is that many parents don't have a clue where to start.

While many computer savvy parents utilize blocks and filters to reduce the likelihood of their children encountering inappropriate material, the overwhelming majority of parents lack the technical know-how to utilize such tools.

Although most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) offer online tutorials for these and other services, parents and particularly those who may be intimidated or overwhelmed at all the Internet has to offer -   should consider taking a basic Internet class. Many community colleges, high schools and libraries offer such courses to as part of their continuing education curriculum. These classes teach participants how to navigate their way through the Internet, introduce basic terminology and point out different types of Internet destinations (chat rooms, newsgroups, etc.). Once you gain a better understanding of the world your child is exploring, you will be better able to judge the appropriateness of their online activities.

If you can't locate a class to attend, consider asking your child to give you some instruction. Although at first glance this might seem counter-productive - after all, you are the one trying to protect them but, having your child serve as your instructor can have some benefits. First, your child will likely be flattered that you have asked for their help. Second, the lessons will enable you and your child to spend some one-on-one time. Finally, the fact that you are taking the time to learn more about what your child is doing will serve notice that you do care about their online activities.

Statistics: Helmets and Safety

Although the calendar claims that spring has arrived, for many of us, the chilly temperatures seem to indicate otherwise. Nonetheless, as the weather warms and the days grow longer, kids will be dusting off their bicycles, skateboards and inline skates and hitting the streets (or sidewalks). Before they set out, make sure you take the time to check the fit of their bicycle helmet since a proper fit is vital to protecting your child from serious injury.

To illustrate the important role helmets play in protecting our kids, consider the following statistics provided by the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute:

• Nearly 800 bicyclists die each year. Half of these are children under the age of 15.
• Bicycle accidents account for approximately 540,000 emergency room visits each year. Of these, 67,000 involve head injuries.
• Brain injuries account for one out of every eight injured cyclists.
• Between 45 and 88 percent of these injuries could have been prevented if the cyclist was wearing a helmet.

One Opinion - Open to Discussion

Helmets Alone Aren't the Answer

At the risk of dating myself, bicycle helmets were not required (or even manufactured) when I was a kid. And, as I look back at those days of flying down our steep driveway on my bicycle, I sometimes wonder how it was that I managed to get to my adult years with all my bones intact.

Another boy in our neighborhood wasn't as lucky.

It was summer, and I had just returned from a two week stay at my grandparents' home. I think I was ten years old. I wasn't home more than an hour, when I ran out to the garage and jumped on my bike, intending to go visit some friends and let them know I was back.

I didn't make it very far. By the time I pulled my bike from the garage, my older brother had come outside and stopped me, telling me I wasn't allowed on my bike until our father got home from work.

When my dad got home, he sat me down and told me about Dale, the boy down the street who was about two years younger than I was. A few days earlier, Dale had just gotten the cast off his recently broken leg and decided to take his older brother's bicycle for a ride. As he pedaled down our street, he began to pick up speed and, soon lost control. My father said the bicycle was much too big for Dale, and because his feet couldn't touch the ground, he wasn't able to stop.

My dad was outside that day working in the yard and saw Dale fly past the house. Within seconds, my dad said he heard a loud screeching noise and a thud. He ran to the corner to find Dale had collided with a car that was going through the intersection. Dale died that day, in that intersection, holding my father's hand.

It wasn't just that Dale wasn't wearing a helmet, but he was on a bicycle that was far too big for him and relying on a leg that had just spent 6 weeks in a plaster cast.

So, before you send your kids out on their bikes, inline skates or scooters, please take the time to not only make sure their helmets fit, but that the equipment they are using is appropriate for their size. It just may save their life.

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