Is there any between teachers' unions and the recent teacher misconduct legislation?

....(and other questions....)

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Safety In Schools

I was not familiar with Jarod's Law until Kari gave her presentation. I feel terrible that this tragedy could have been prevented. I think that the overall goal of Jarod's law is good but that it is so extensive that is limits the experience that students should be able to have to truly learn. It should be the schools responsibility to create the safest experience possible. However, I am afraid that the students will be so protected that they wont know how to solve their own problems. I also do not want all the fun to be taken out of learning. For example, at my school the students love reading on the carpet and on bean bag chairs. It would be a shame if all these resources were taken away.
When reading about Jarod's Law it said that all schools who receive government funding must comply with the law. I work at a charter school and I have not heard anyone there talk about Jarod's Law. Also since Kari's presentation I have seen that my school violates some of the rules that are stated in the School Environmental Health and Safety Inspection checklist. For example my school stores folding chairs in the hallways which Jarod's Law does not permit. My school also has carpeting around water fountains which is not allowed because moisture will acumulate. At least at my school it does not seem like yearly health and safety inspections are being done. It seems like more needs to be done to make sure that schools are following the regulations stated in Jarod's Law.

2 comments:

  1. Isn't it interesting how much we see going on in our own schools that is not compliant with Jarod's Law? Are we putting the kids in immediate serious danger - like death? I don't think we are - there should be a scale on these violations. A table falling on a child and killing them is a lot worse than the carpet not being 15 feet in the entrance hall.

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  2. I think we need to break the whole system down and look at what is really important and what matters should be taken care of first above all other circumstances. If we make the list shorter then more people would probably start to atleast do those standards rather then just ignore the whole matter because it's overwhelming.

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