Kevin Crosby writes:

>Our campus safety officer just brought to our attention the lack of any
>formal, signed, consent form governing the university's liability for high
>school students spending part of the summer in our chemistry lab.  In the
>past we've assumed that high school students on campus during the summer
>were covered by the same insurance/liability policy for all regular
>students.  It hasn't been an issue before, and there have been loads of kids
>here in the summer, but not in the chem lab.
>So we're wondering if other universities require high school kids & their
>parents to sign a consent form (waive all rights to sue, other legal stuff,
>etc.) or if it's OK to state that the high school kids are treated as
>regular students.

Excellent issue to raise for discussion!

UCONN Health Center, as a state agency, cannot require that anyone waive their
rights to sue, however, our policy for summer h.s. students in labs goes
something like this (it's not articulated as a formal policy, it's just what
we do):

1.  All h.s. students need to be registered as volunteers.  We maintain an
insurance policy for all volunteers, hence the students are covered for such
things as on-site accidents.

2.  All students need to go through routine safety training session, e.g., lab
safety, rad safety, blood-borne pathogen, animal care etc. depending on what
they will be doing.

3.  Depending on the program and the student's health status, students may be
required to take a physical at our employee health dept.

4.  If the student is 16 or younger, and the program involves exposure to
ionizing radiation, then the program must get approval from our Rad Safety
Committee, which insists on reviewing the educational benefit of the exposure,
i.e., if the student is merely a paid dishwasher in a lab that uses isotopes,
the Rad Safety Committee would probably not approve.  If the student is a
volunteer and is shadowing one of our physicians through radiology and nuclear
medicine, as part of an educational interest in medicine, then the Rad Safety
Committee would approve the exposure.

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Leonard P. Paplauskas    Assistant Vice President for Research     |
203-679-3173             University of Connecticut Health Center   |
FAX 679-2670             Farmington, CT   06030-5355               |
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xxxxxx@sun.uchc.edu                                            |
xxxxxx@neuron.uchc.edu                                           |
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