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  • SKEA has been involved in a collaborative OSHA consultation process with the District for many months regarding workplace safety. As part of that process, OSHA conducted site visits and interviews across the District.

    OSHA issued its final report on October 16. We had a written agreement (see link below) guiding the collaborative process. The agreement stated that the District would share the report immediately with SKEA upon receipt. It took three weeks and a threat of legal action before the District provided the report to SKEA (see link below). This represents a significant breach of trust. Withholding the report was utterly unacceptable and substantially undermined any goodwill that had been established through this process. It also speaks volumes about the credibility of District leadership and their lack of respect for SKEA, our members and their wellbeing.

    The full report totals 27 pages, including an appendix detailing OSHA violations, workplace safety hazards, and recommended corrections. The report validates what we have been telling the District for several years: that workplace safety conditions across the District are unacceptable.

    OSHA compared the Salem-Keizer School District to state and national averages, and found that the injury rates at the sites visited were “consistently well above National averages,” both in terms of frequency and severity of injuries and injury-causing behaviors.

  • “Provide additional, appropriate educational space for students with higher behaviors. An example of appropriate design is the BIC.”

    “Provide more “student facing” staff with appropriate education, experience, and skills, such as the counselors, social workers, and educators, to adequately staff school and other settings to provide safe workplaces for all District employees.”

    “Make steps to reasonably ensure employees document and report all high behaviors (hitting, kicking, shoving, beating, clubbing, biting, piercing, pushing, squeezing, and verbal assault), near-misses, and injuries.”

    “Assist staff working with students, including bus drivers, in understanding the hazards to which they may be exposed, including hitting, kicking, shoving, beating, clubbing, biting, piercing, pushing, squeezing, and verbal assault from students in high behavior.”

    “Effectively train District employees that work with students in the acceptable methods to protect their selves from students in high behavior, especially in regard to restraint.”

     “Bring Safety Committee operations into compliance.”

     “Investigate all injuries that lead to lost work time.”

    “Ensure Instructional Assistants and bus drivers know which students have historically had behaviors that caused injuries and which students riding their bus have had behaviors during the day at school.”

  • OSHA has instructed the District to post the identified hazards, “unedited, in a prominent location where it is readily observable by all employees for three working days or until the hazards have been corrected, whichever is later.” Please let us know immediately if you believe the District has failed to do this at your worksite.

    SKEA appreciates the OSHA personnel who put in months of extremely hard, dedicated, and thoughtful work to help improve workplace safety. The report importantly notes that the District “appeared to have the ability” to correct many of the more serious hazards – particularly those related to record keeping, safety and health training, accident/incident investigation, safety committees, PPE, and first aid supplies. In other words, these are problems that the District can begin fixing right now. There is no excuse for failing to do so.

    SKEA has been attempting to address these safety issues for years and will continue to do so during bargaining and filing potential complaints with OSHA if needed. We need your help and support to know what is happening in our various schools and worksites. Please read the report, know what should be happening, and let us know if it’s not happening. It’s about time for safety!