Negligence in Schools

February 21.

I just came from work, and I heard the news about 11 students rushed to the hospital because of Mercury poisoning. In fact, they are trying to test all the students in the class just for sure. This happened in a first year high school class in a certain St. Andrews School. Presumably - as the report in GMA7 maintains - an unprotected mercury is placed in a beaker for everyone to see. The beaker in turn is passed from student to student. In this case, we can only conjecture on what really transpired. Perhaps, some students fooled around with the mercury. Perhaps, some of them touched the poisonous substance.

The first thing that came to my mind was the teacher's presence. It might be charged to his/her negligence that such an event should happen to students. Even if s/he was there and made explicit orders on the procedures of handling the element, if there has been serious lack of diligence on his/her part, s/he will surely toast. The burden of proof - of showing care and diligence - lies on the teacher. We don't want to be in his/her position right now.

This should be a lesson for all of us teachers. For us educational leaders, we must see to it that the teachers know their obligations, their liabilities. If they know this beforehand, they would be diligent. After all, as Sewall said, "What we don't know will hurt us".