Wired glass threat to schools

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This article was published 26/02/2016 (3007 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Don’t run with scissors, kids —and don’t put your arm through a door with wired glass, or jam your head between the rungs of the climbing wall in the gym.

Manitoba schools received two more hazard warnings this month to avoid injuries that have occurred elsewhere.

Ontario has already paid $5.8 millions in claims for injuries involving wired-glass doors, said Darren Thomas, risk manager of the Manitoba School Boards Association.

“We’ve had incidents where the wired glass is broken — not major injuries,” Thomas said Friday. “There’s an inclination to push on the glass.”

Thomas said wired glass is designed to resist intense heat, stay in place during a fire and slow down the spread of a fire. But it’s not as strong as plain glass.

“Recently, the Canadian Glass Association released a statement that ‘traditional wired glass should not be used in locations subject to human impact.’ This would include doors in schools that contain wired glass where human traffic is located,” Thomas told school divisions this month.

“At this time, there is no legislation required to remove or retrofit existing buildings. However, we recommend that all schools evaluate their wired-glass locations to determine where potential impact and injury locations might occur.”

Thomas said the priority is to remove wired glass from heavily used doors, such as main exits. “There are some schools where it’s wired glass everywhere,” but only 20 per cent may be used enough to be a hazard, he said.

Thomas advised schools to post signs urging staff and students to use push bars to open wired-glass doors, rather than pushing on the glass.

“The United States removed wired glass for human-impact locations in 2006, and it is no longer used in most countries; Canada being one of the last to still allow its use.”

He said lawsuits are occurring, and Ontario school boards have already paid out more than $5.8 million in claims.

The Winnipeg School Division pointed out Friday that national building standards require wired glass where there is a fire separation wall.

“The WSD building department is replacing, as the need arises, any wired glass in situations where there is no need for a fire rating with laminated glass. We have not had any wired-glass-related injuries reported,” a division official said.

Meanwhile, Thomas has recommended schools remove the centre rung in the three rungs at the bottom of indoor climbing structures in their gyms.

“There was an incident at a school where the student got entangled in the three rungs right up to the head,” he said.

The teachers kept the student calm and managed to extricate him, said Thomas.

He wouldn’t name the school.

“There are a lot of them in elementary schools,” Thomas said. “The bottom half of the frames are a set of three bars — the spacing on these bars is 3.5 inches or less, which pose a significant hazard for kids’ heads to get trapped.

Applying outdoor playground Canadian Standards Association rules, this spacing is not allowed.

“We are aware that there have been a few children who have been stuck in these bars during gym class, and the solution to this is to remove the middle bars, which some school divisions have already done,” Thomas said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca