End Safety Theater

[eedoga]

Food for thought...

What if the "safety theater" actually helped a team think about and later develop a culture of safety?

My team wasn't all that safe...No one got seriously hurt, and people were relatively safe around power tools (including the robot), but we did have a few close calls, and way too many "minor" injuries...We were the type of team that "noses goesesed" over who had[ to be safety captain on any particular year.

A few years ago our safety captain was taken to task over not having a safety binder, knowing where the first aid kit was and the like. The safety inspector sent her over to a team that was putting on quite the safety theater show, who took Mary under her wing. Mary was shown how to create a safety binder, and what goes into it. We all absolutely learned a ton and realized exactly how lucky we had been up to that point.

Now we keep a safety binder and have a dedicated safety team. They train the other kids help out with safety tests, conduct investigations with small injuries to ensure bigger injuries aren't pending, are CPR/First Aid certified (as are several of our team members now, and help protect my job as a teacher. We actively think about safety now. We have people who make sure the kids aren't being complacent around the tools or the robot, and are a second opinion when everyone else is all in a rush to get something done.

Now we don't put on a show at competitions. We have all the right safety stuff and use it, but we did learn something from a team that was sort of putting on a show.

This is all my own personal opinion and teams should do what works for them.

Edoga