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Boy Left Stranded In Tree Because of Health and Safety Policy

Posted by samzenpus on from the you-got-yourself-into-this-mess dept.

School employees left a 5-year-old boy stranded in a tree because it is against health and safety policies in the UK to help him down. Instead they went inside to "observe from a distance" so the boy would not get "distracted and fall." The incident reached an even more ridiculous level when passer-by Kim Barrett had the audacity to actually help the child down. Officials promptly called the police and tried to have her charged with trespassing. From the article: "Mrs Martin confirmed that the school's policy prevents staff going to the aid of children who have climbed trees. She said: 'The safety of our pupils is our priority and we would like to make it clear that this child was being observed at all times during this very short incident. Like other schools whose premises include wooded areas, our policy when a child climbs a tree, is for staff to observe the situation from a distance so the child does not get distracted and fall. We would strongly urge members of the public not to climb over a padlocked gate to approach children as their motives are not clear to staff.'"

10 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds good. by dsavi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...Forbid that common sense would prevail over bureaucracy. It's one of the many gifts that humans have over computers, yet so many waste it. GOTO 10

    1. Re:Sounds good. by SleazyRidr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      But if you use your common sense you might get into trouble! Don't want that.

      I was just following orders.

      --
      Is 1563649 a prime number?
    2. Re:Sounds good. by krou · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've encountered this type of thinking before. I got onto a train that had arrived at the the last stop, and was about to head back in the opposite direction. I watched all the passengers get off, but there was still a young girl hunched over in her chair. Thinking she was asleep, I got on and tried to wake her up. She was unresponsive, so I tried to shake her awake. Still, no response, just a groan of some sort. Her eyes were fluttering between closed and open. Worried, thinking she could be a diabetic and had fallen into a coma, I went to alert the guard, who promptly told me that she had already been on the train going backwards and forwards on the route for over an hour. Amazed, I asked the guard why hadn't he called for an ambulance, or tried to see if he could wake her up. He just shrugged his shoulders and said, "Not allowed to touch 'em, health and safety." It was only when I pressed the issue that he agreed to get some police and/or health services to meet the train at the next stop to help her.

      --
      'If Christ had tweeted the sermon on the mount, it might have lasted until nightfall.' - John Perry Barlow
    3. Re:Sounds good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Forbid that common sense would prevail over bureaucracy.

      That is such an ignorant statement. A human infant's morphology is designed so that it can withstand an impact from a fall much better than an adult elementary school teacher can. If an uninvited intruder wouldn't have trespassed on school grounds to rescue the infant, then the toddler would have eventually just fallen out of the tree on its own accord. Problem solved.

      With adults getting involved, things become much more complicated. Laws were broken, and school and taxpayer liability were at stake. Britains are already over-taxed, we don't want to have to pay yet more money if a teacher would have broken her neck falling off of a tree. Children, on the other hand are more dispensable. Lose a teacher and you not only lose an investment of years of education, but you have to deal with the teachers union and the Labour Party. People need to stop thinking about their own morals and start thinking more about keeping Britain sheltered from responsability of thought and action. We have laws to protect children. We also need laws to protect adults from themselves. Playing the part of a good Samaritan is such a self-centered egotistical role that flies in the face of the Nanny State. You sir, obviously have no idea of how our beloved bureaucracy works.

  2. This is the essence of Lawful Stupid. by Securityemo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is it, the essential example. It should be plated with gold and kept in a requilary.
    I had a teacher like this once. Later in life, when I was reading up on Asperger, I realized she was a textbook case; the world is unpredictable and besides the most shallow emotions people are inscrutable black boxes, so just follow the rules and no one will blame you. I also realized this was basically how I had functioned up to my mid-teens.

    --
    Emotions! In your brain!
    1. Re:This is the essence of Lawful Stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ah yes. Except that this is a Daily Fail story that combines "it's-health-and-safety-gone-mad" with "won't-somebody-think-of-the-children", two of their favourite topics.

      Oh look, there appears to be another side to this story. What a surprise.

  3. Good morning, Worm, your honour by headbone · · Score: 3, Funny

    The crown will plainly show the prisoner who now stands before you was caught red-handed showing feelings of an almost human nature. This will not do.

  4. Re:So the staff can safely observe when... by dudpixel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    duh, you worded it wrong. Of course no one can hear him if there's no one there.

    The correct line would be:

    "If a boy falls out of a tree in a forest, and no one heard him, did he make a sound?"

    --
    This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
  5. Re:So the staff can safely observe when... by gnapster · · Score: 2, Funny

    The correct line when filling out a Risk Assessment in the UK is, "If a boy falls out of a tree in a forest, and no one heard him, is there any way that anyone could be held liable?"

  6. School has different story by harryjohnston · · Score: 2, Informative

    The school in question reports the incident rather differently.