Students burned in shop class gone wrong

5 BC students were burned in an accident that should never have happened. The students were working with molten aluminum outside in the snow. Some of the snow melted (of course). According to Donna Freeman of WorkSafeBC, the combination of molten aluminum and water is considered "risky". Students were sprayed with 2000° molten metal; some of the drops were as large as loonies.

The only safety equipment the kids had were goggles and long mitts. They should have had full face masks and aprons.

To make matters worse, school officials dallied for 45 minutes before taking the students for medical treatment. What were they thinking?

If something like this happened in a homeschooling family, there would be an outcry about how dangerous homeschooling is, how education should be left to "qualified" professionals. What kind of training did this teacher have that he would put the kids in a dangerous situation like this, without proper protective gear, and no burn kit on hand, and then not even taking the kids for immediate medical treatment?

Of course, many teachers are more safety-conscious than this one was. But the fact remains that the only way parents can be 100% certain that our children's teachers will be safety-conscious is to be those safety-conscious teachers ourselves.