TO:  Multiple Recipients of list RESADM-L

 High schoolers present many issues in laboratories.  Under the NIH
 Minority High School Research Apprentice Program, we encountered
 several dilemmas:

 In Boston, students under 16 have to have special work papers, which
 requires that the students have a recent physical examination.
 Students under 18 are theoretically not supposed to be exposed to
 radioactive materials in research.  We addressed this by mandating
 that all summer students, as with regular research employees, must
 take a radioactive safety course and be certified by the hospital
 before they could work in the laboratories.  This was done either the
 week before they started the program or during an orientation week.
 They also had to take an infectious disease course.  Both these
 training sessions were run specifically for the high school students.

 Since no one can be asked to waive their rights to sue by us, we did
 not do that.  We did, however, put a consent paragraph in the
 student's application, requiring that the parents sign and approve
 their child participating in a laboratory experience.  Without that
 consent, the application was not processed.

 There are also work hours for those under 18.  In Boston, (could be a
 state law or federal, but I do not remember at this moment) we could
 not have students work after 9 PM during the summer and 7PM during the
 school week, which did cause problems with timing of some of the
 experiments.  They also could not work more than 8 hours per day.

 These are a few of the challenges one confronts once getting past the
 initial investigator reaction of "What -- a teenager in my lab!"  That
 took some getting through, but a few very talented high school
 students did that job for us.

 Diane C. Gilbert, CRA
 Director, Research and Training Development
 Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital
       xxxxxx@xxxxxx@inet