OSEA and AFT-Oregon members delivered powerful testimony in support of a common-sense rule change at two public hearings held last week by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Oregon OSHA).

The proposed rule change would no longer exempt K-12 school districts from the stringent recordkeeping regulations other occupations are required to follow when documenting injuries and work-related illnesses. OSEA believes adoption of this rule, which is expected in late June or July, will result in gaining important data on the frequency and types of workplace injuries sustained by classified employees.

Pictured, from left: Brenda King of Hillsboro Classified United Local 4671, Anna Taylor of Beaverton Chapter 48, Kathy Forbes of Tillamook Chapter 28, Melody Hansen of Hillsboro, Amber Baertlein of Greham-Barlow Chapter 8, Heather Moore of Hillsboro, Monica McCanna of Harney County Chapter 75, Whitnee Fitzgerald of Hillsboro and Ruth Creek of Ontario Chapter 23.

A total of 11 OSEA members and two members of Hillsboro Classified United Local 4671 testified in person at hearings held in Roseburg (May 23) and Tigard (May 24), and a dozen more submitted written testimony. OSEA members wishing to submit testimony prior to OSHA’s deadline can do so by clicking here.

“Where I work, staff members pray together so they will not get hurt that day; it’s wrong that we have to work under these conditions,” said Ruth Creek, a special education paraprofessional and member of Ontario Chapter 23, at the hearing held in Tigard. “I believe changing the recordkeeping requirements will benefit the students, their classmates, teachers and staff.”

Creek was joined at the hearing by Amber Baertlein of Greham-Barlow Chapter 8, Anna Taylor of Beaverton Chapter 48 and OSEA Zone Directors Kathy Forbes and Monica McCanna. They all shared heartbreaking stories in which the special-needs students they were serving were unable to control themselves, putting staff and other students in harm’s way.

The proposed rule change and public hearings were a direct result of OSEA’s Work Shouldn’t Hurt campaign to reduce the amount of preventable injuries sustained by members as a result of violent behavior from students. In January, OSEA petitioned Oregon OSHA to remove elementary and secondary schools from its list of “low hazard industries.”

“In considering the petition … made by OSEA, it was discovered that industries covered by this rule have injury and illness rates that are significantly higher than would be expected in a low-hazard industry,” said Sue Joye, rules coordinator for Oregon OSHA, as she opened the May 24 hearing. “To illustrate, the DART rate (days away, restricted or transferred) for elementary and secondary schools from 2011 through 2015 was slightly higher than that of nonresidential construction.”

The hearing in Roseburg, which was also attended by OSEA President Tim Stoelb, did not feature any public testimony from school districts; however, representatives from the Salem-Keizer and North Clackamas school districts attended the Tigard hearing.

They both acknowledged the severity of the problem of workplace violence, but said they opposed the rule change because of the cost in time and resources. Salem-Keizer Public Schools Risk Manager William White called the proposed rule an “unfunded mandate.”

“We oppose this rule change not because we don’t want to do anything about it,” White said, adding that in his district there were systems in place to track injury data and keep employees safe.

David Kruse, risk manager for the North Clackamas School District, said he thought the rule change would cost a lot of time and money for little usable data.

“We’ll not get the data we need doing those logs,” he said, adding that the extra paperwork  will mean risk managers, like himself, “won’t be able to do the work needed to make people safe.”

Kruse also said there is little the district could do to address the exposure to possibly violent students since school districts are required by law to educate all students.

In response, OSEA Government Relations Specialist Soren Metzger said, “Districts have clearly hit a wall in what they can do to keep their staff and students safe, which is why it is perfectly appropriate to bring the state agency responsible for workplace safety (Oregon OSHA) into the conversation as we hope to do with this rule change.”

Metzger also reiterated OSEA’s position that “safety shouldn’t be a separate budget line item” and that the fiscal impact of the rule change should be minimal.

“I would argue this rule change could actually save districts money,” Metzger said, citing potential savings in workers’ compensation claims as a result of a better understanding of the causes and trends in violence stepped-up reporting makes possible.

The public comment period for this rule change closes on June 21.