Kindergartners shouldn’t be handling substances that could cause burns while doing science projects at school.
It’s a matter of common sense.
Common sense was in short supply when a science project at Pittsburgh King PreK-8 on the North Side ended up giving a child serious burns. The child spilled a substance on herself and ended up needing hospital treatment.
Photos published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette show burns on the girl’s torso. Blisters and peeling, burned skin are visible. The pictures are cringe-worthy. The girl will likely have lasting injuries, according to her family’s attorney.
The substance may have been boiling water, but the school system hasn’t told parents much about the “potion” the children were making.
That a teacher and school officials allowed this to happen is outrageous. Pittsburgh Public Schools must take action to make sure this never happens again.
Not only does the matter need to be investigated, but the public needs to know how and why this could happen. The public must know that disciplinary and corrective actions have been taken. It shouldn’t be difficult for PPS to make appropriate redactions.
The parents of the child deserve complete information from the school system about what happened that led to the child’s injury.
The child suffered more than burns, she suffered emotional trauma. The girl doesn’t want to go to school and is afraid of science projects. No wonder.
For the rest of her educational career and beyond she’ll always have this traumatic event to cope with — something that never should have happened.
The Post-Gazette requested a copy of guidelines for science projects at the kindergarten level from PPS and received a link to Pennsylvania Department of Education standards. Those standards set goals and have a bit of information about how children should be taught to understand science. The documents don’t provide specific guidelines on age-appropriate science projects or experience.
PPS needs to set out specific guidelines on experiments and safety for students. Those standards should include lists of substances for experiments that are grade-level appropriate.
No child of any age should be burned in class, and kindergartners should not be handling any potentially dangerous substances in science class.
Every teacher needs to understand that.
Common sense needs to be put in writing and PPS must make sure teachers get the message on safety in science experiments.
First Published: January 23, 2020, 10:27 a.m.
