If I may, I¹ll add this response of the many that will probably soon come in
relative to this thread:
Steve Stepenuck
On 8/7/19, 11:48 AM, ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety on behalf of
David C. Finster wrote:
Gees, again.
Sammye is right.
The principal said in a notification to parents at the school:
³ Let me take this opportunity to assure you that providing a safe and
secure learning environment is a top priority at Redan High School. This is
an isolated incident and all safety measures will be reviewed. Please do
not hesitate to contact me at 678-676-3602 should you have any questions².
The incident may well be ³isolated² at that high school, but there is little
comfort in this observation, and it reveals the lack of knowledge about the
nationwide problem with this kind of demonstration (and lack of proper
training on the part of the teacher). Perhaps an appropriately crafted
statement from the CHAS/CCS to the principal would correct some of her
mis-conceptions.
Getting the right information about such hazards and risks to every public
and private school in the country ( and I think that we don¹t have much
insight into similar situation in other countries) is a huge challenge. We
should continue to work the AACT and NSTA to do the best we can.
I have tremendous sympathy for all K-12 teachers in every classroom and lab
across the country as the challenge of teaching students in today¹s
environment. Even at the college level ( = my experience) about half of my
effort in teaching students has little to do with chemistry. Today¹s
students need a wide range of support regarding both academic challenges and
personal/social challenges that affect their ability to learn. In this
context, ³teaching chemistry² is the easiest part of a chemistry teacher¹s
job; we are asked to function as counselors/advisor to address a host of
non-chemistry issues. (If you are over 30, I would suggest that almost
everything that you experienced as a high school/college student is not
representative of today¹s classroom/lab.) Many high school teachers are
well intended and use demonstrations as a combination of ³relevant
entertainment² that is intended to motivate, inspire, and ³just make
chemistry fun². This does not absolve them of being responsible about
safety, and we all know that the education future chemistry teacher receive
is clearly inadequate to the degree that ³they don¹t know what they don¹t
know² about safety. An inclination to vilify the teacher is
understandable, but he/she likely the person who feels the worst about this
event. Let¹s keep up our good work and effort to improve this situation.
We will never know about what tragedies will be averted because of our
efforts, but we know what we need to do with that hope in mind.
Dave
David C. Finster
Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry
Wittenberg University
From: ACS Division of Chemical Health and Safety <DCHAS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Samuella Sigmann
Sent: Wednesday, August 07, 2019 10:58 AM
To: DCHAS-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] Is this another?
Sure looks like it could be. Obviously something to do with mishandling of
solvents.
This is an isolated incident and all safety measures will be reviewed.
This just came from my news scanner
https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/dek
alb-county/15-year-old-student-burned-in-chemistry-experiment-at-high-school-i
n-dekalb/973477391&ct=ga&cd=CAEYACoTMzg5NjI4ODY3OTM1NTA3MTg4NTIaOTk5ODc4NTZhMz
cyZTc3MDpjb206ZW46VVM&usg=AFQjCNH8YLzQzx2ZZ0pNPIxUCA_UtzOtwQ
Sent from Neal Langerman's NEXUS 6.
Standard client confidentiality terms apply.
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