OK, dusting off an old topic....
There is a discussion going on in a parents group of my daughter's college about (at another school) an incident where a student got wacked on the head before a show by a falling pipe....ran the show, then went to the ER on their own to get checked out - concussion, no brain bleeding.
The discussion is about who should have been responsible in this situation - why did the student have to bring themselves to the ER? Why was there not a formal injury report made? What should the school's
roll been in this situation.
I believe this does fall in that in between place of
OSHA doesn't have jurisdiction because they are not employees. The students are of age, so they are not children. Past discussions seem to indicate that, at least in a high school (under 18 years old) that this often falls under what the insurance underwriter will allow....assuming there are no district/school policies in place.
My feeling in this particular situation is that the college
theatre should have a written policy about injury reporting and actions. The college's staff
should be the responsible party for the policy/action and for educating the students about injury reporting and actions.
I believe this involves a student run organization on campus - There may not be actual collage staff is directly involved.
My gut feeling is that the facility owner (the college) is the responsible party and should have published policies and procedures that the students must follow in the case of injuries. The lack of a school employee on site at the time should NOT remove the responsibility of the school having set policies. But, because the injured student is an adult, they are responsible for activating the policy/action plan when an injury happens. There NEEDS to be a designated
safety person (
stage manager? TD?), especially when there is no staff available, who is responsible for activating action when an injury happens.
Thoughts?