The new school year is just around the corner, with parents buying new clothing, backpacks, books, iPads, iPhones, and all kinds of stuff for their children to help them with studying.
As you are getting your kids ready in the end-of-summer school preparations, it is important to understand that your child’s next year at school will be full of not just learning, but also potential hazards.
Unfortunately, most parents forget to take some of the most fundamental and obvious safety precautions to ensure that their children’s new school year will be injury-free. “Seeing your child injured is one of the most painful experiences for a parent,” says our Philadelphia injury lawyer at the Dan Doyle Law Group.
We have outlined some of the most vital back to school safety tips to ensure that your child’s new school year will be safe and free of any hazards.
Sometimes, the backpacks children have to carry to school are so heavy even an adult would struggle to lift it, let alone carry it for long periods of time. Children have to carry heavy backpacks full of books, textbooks, and other school-related stuff, which puts a tremendous strain on their backs.
Add hours of sedentary lifestyle and poor posture at school and lack of physical activity upon a schoolchild’s return home, and you get an even bigger risk of developing a back injury. Do not let your kid carry a heavy backpack. Instead, distribute the weight more evenly between the back and hands, or go through the contents of the backpack and ensure that everything that your kid put into it is necessary to carry to school.
We all know that disturbing feeling of being late when you drive your child to school. Many parents even choose to run red lights and even speed through school zones in order to get to school on time. This creates a plethora of risks not only for those around you, especially in the school zone where the speed limit is reduced dramatically, but also puts your own child’s safety at risk.
Checking weather forecasts before getting your child ready for his or her day at school is a valuable tip. Rain, or to be more specific, wet surfaces cause numerous injuries to children on their trips to and from schools.
Slippery sidewalks and hard floors, wet floor in hallways at school, and all kinds of other dangerous conditions on your child’s way to and from school is a potential slip and fall accident waiting to happen. Talk to your child about the importance of being careful when walking on slippery and wet surfaces when it is raining or snowing, or help your child get to school, and hold their hand when you walk them to school.
One of the reasons why many schoolchildren like their school are because they get to play sports there. Sports like football, soccer, basketball, and others can be very fun, no doubt about that, but they are also extremely dangerous.
Stories of schoolchildren suffering concussions, brain injuries, and other injuries during physical activity classes at school are not unheard of. Make sure that your child has the necessary protective equipment for every sport to ensure his/her safety.
If your child has been injured on his/her trip to or from school or even at school, you may be able to seek compensation by using the negligent parties. Consult with our Philadelphia personal injury attorney from the Dan Doyle Law Group to find out whether or not you are entitled to monetary compensation if your child has been injured. Call our offices at 215-987-3730 or fill out this contact form to get a free consultation.