By Glenn Hicks

High school students prepared for workplace safety

Jun 13, 2018 | 10:00 AM

High school students at Hudson Bay Community School picked up some important workplace safety tips during the first annual Cade Sprackman Safety Day on Tuesday.

The youngsters were introduced to fire extinguish training on a day that highlighted the significance of basic safety and commemorated Cade Sprackman, a young man who died over two years ago in a tragic accident at a tire recycling facility.

“Knowledge is probably our best asset,” Ryan Durand, an instructor with the Saskatchewan Safety Council, told northeastNOW. “The more young people can know, the better off they’ll be in those environments.”

Durand said the instruction was aimed not only at building skills for when young people find themselves in the workplace, but at building their confidence as well.

“Sometimes people are afraid to speak up or mention something in the workplace,” he said. “We’re trying to teach them to tell someone if they feel something isn’t right.”

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For grade 12 student Liam Niblock, the training was a no-brainer.

“I never knew how to use a fire extinguisher and I wasn’t aware of the hazards,” he said. “I feel it should be mandatory for every Grade 12 student.”

The safety day at the school featured presentations by the Safety Council as well as the Safety Manager at Weyerhauser. All youths between the ages of 14 and 21 are eligible to register to take Career Safety Education courses and instruction is free thanks to various sponsorships, grants, and donations.

Michelle Sprackman, Cade’s mum, is a big supporter of the programs and advocates for youth safety in the workplace.

“Cade naively saw his workplace as safe and he had nothing to compare it to,” she said in a statement. “Systems are only as good as the people behind them and people are fallible. “

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: northeastNOW_sk