‘Beyond failure’: WA teen loses legs at school-based work program.
‘Beyond failure’: WA teen loses legs at school-based work program.
Thousands of students enroll in work-for-credit programs, but a 16-year-old’s case shows life-altering consequences of risky jobs and murky oversight.
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Okay, so who the fuck thinks it’s cool to let kids use machinery capable of ripping up rocks and dirt with relatively little effort?
Show of hands. No one?
Somebody belongs in jail over this.
Tbh, sounds like child labor to me even if it was "legal". Like school credit for hours on a construction job wtf? Like I thought maybe he was some how doing a metal working/machinist class and somehow got fucked up by a lathe or something, but Jesus fucking Christ, what are you gonna learn doing construction work?
... exactly the right lessons for those in power.
Jesus fucking Christ, what are you gonna learn doing construction work?
Wheelchair-based sports apparently.
I got school credit working at McDonalds. You learn all sorts of stuff, like how to show up on time (something I was shocked I would have to later teach people as a manager) and I personally learned the phrase "you got time to lean, you got time to clean" (which I use to this day to irritate my children). Obviously, no child should be put into a dangerous job, but you do lean some things by actually experiencing the work environment. And construction is a legit, respectable job/career that (if done right/safely) a teen could learn a lot from.
Which subject did "show up on time" give you credit towards?
Keeping employed?
Is that a school subject in America?
You are supposed to learn more at school than just the classes. Among other things you should learn how to interact with other humans in a decent way, and how to not be tardy, how your actions affect others, and more
Then again, we are talking about america
Yes you are. But that's not how school credit works?
I learned to read a tape measure, covert fractions to decimal, practical application of the Pythagorean theorem, and quite a bit about the application of dimensions and measurement in three dimensional space.
I didn't think it's bad for a kid to have a job, provided the hours are limited, do not interfere with schooling, and are integrated into school curriculum. Parents also have a duty to monitor the employer, and the employer should view the teenager as a trainee who might make the company money as an adult, not a source of direct profit.
So, you know, a fantasy
There's a ton of practical knowledge and skills a student could learn from a properly structured experience in construction. The focus needs to be on education first with productivity being a bonus, however, which I'm skeptical was the case here due to the outcome.
I couldn't even read the whole thing, it made me too sick!
I don't know American regulation, but there is absolutely no way that would be a legal workplace here.
Handling such machinery requires a certificate. Even a simple forklift does.wanna know what's really getting to me?
There's a very high chance he wasn't even being paid a proper wage (it's required that they're paid minimum wage. But I doubt very much that they paid higher than that.) And, there's a non-zero chance that somebody at the school or schoolboard was taking kickbacks for the cheap labor.
in any case, looking at their Child Labor Laws would expressly forbid this.
Specifically in non-agro:
- Operating forklifts or other heavy equipment such as earthmovers, tractors, backhoes, etc.
- Loading, operating, or unloading of paper/cardboard balers or compactors
- Jobs where respiratory protection or hearing protection is required
and in construction:
- Wrecking, demolition, trenching, or excavating
Yep, and tow motors.
Sounds like it wasn't legal there.
But the place that's going to illegally let a 16 year old use a ditch witch probably isn't too concerned with proper safety training either.
It looks in the same category as equipment like lawnmowers. That is, kids shouldn't be operating them, especially not without close supervision and thorough safety training.
It’s trencher, it’s specifically mentioned in WA labor law as forbidden.
Basically, a high powered chain saw, except its blades are larger for digging.