This is a common policy, be it
OSHA or insurance-provider-enforced. Students are allowed on the
catwalk, which has sufficient railings, but do not often go up there -- that's just the way things tend to
play out. They are not allowed to use lifts. Only adults (ages 18 and older) who have completed the lift training may use lifts. Again, usually we don't have students focusing anyways in our main
theatre. In our black box, students are often focusing, but everything is reachable by ladder anyways.
There are a couple times each year it's a little unfortunate we can't have students in the lifts, but it's not the a show stopper. It doesn't affect normal operations and the policies are really a non-issue for us. And when I say it doesn't affect normal operations, I mean we've got lights on in our theatres 338 days of the year this next season and despite most of those days being for school-related functions as well as several pro events a month, we'll get by without any problems.
When you say they "changed a rule" a couple years ago, I suspect what you really mean is the district finally became aware of what was going on. It wasn't that it ever explicitly allowed, just that the rules weren't being enforced, hadn't ever been thought about, or that they had been more clearly stated. Many districts are unaware that these sorts of things are going on until an admin sees a student in a lift or climbing up to the
catwalk -- then they run around to the other admin and say, "What the ____ are we thinking, allowing students up there?!" Reality is, long before the school noticed, the insurance provider and
OSHA had a much greater say in the matter, but they were also unaware of the problem.
For my last show, a parent at some party happened to work for the insurance provider and someone mentioned that we were building a pool for the next show and no sooner than a few days later we had a flood insurance policy put in place for the
theatre. It's more about admin becoming aware of an existing problem than suddenly changing their minds about something they had previously considered okay -- most wouldn't have allowed students in a lift in the first place, but it's not exactly in their job description to think about that. When you're hired as a principal, nobody points at you and says, "Oh, by the way, our students are going 50' above the
stage floor to access the
weight floor in the
theatre and toss
counterweight around, and they're also getting in bucket and scissor lifts without fall arrest harnesses to focus lighting for the school
play."
Out of sight, out of mind.