Safety Guidelines for Secondary Interschool Athletics in Alberta

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Avoiding Unreasonable Risk and Legal Liability
To ensure they are not exposing student athletes to unreasonable risk of injury and
themselves to legal liability for negligence, teachers/coaches should be able to
respond positively to the following questions. If teachers/coaches can say they are
taking the following precautions, they will be providing the standard of care owed
to their student athletes to protect them from unreasonable risk of injury, and
accordingly, it is unlikely they will be found negligent for failing to provide
reasonable care.
1. Is the activity developmentally appropriate for the student athlete(s), e.g.,
physical, social, emotional, and intellectual ability level?
2. Have the student athletes been progressively taught and coached to perform the
activity properly and to avoid the dangers inherent in the activity . Do the
practice plans document the progressive instructions regarding the related
activity and the inherent dangers of the activity?
3. Are the playing/practice facilities and equipment adequate and suitably
arranged?
4. Is the activity properly supervised for the inherent risk involved?
Injury Incident Procedures
• All school authorities should have a policy outlining procedures in case of an
accident, injury or incident. Each school administrator should have:
o A set of written school safety rules.
o A first aid kit accessible to all staff and volunteers. This should be fully
stocked and checked on a regular basis (use Appendix O).
o Forms to be used by teacher/coach when reporting an injury (use Appendix
C).
o Emergency procedures posted in the gymnasium and by the nearest phone
(use Appendix N).
• Accident/Injury/Incident Report forms should report all medically treated
injuries and all accidents, near accidents and equipment problems. Forms
should be designed to collect information and facilitate the investigation of
accidents or injuries.
• A well-designed and properly completed report form can be valuable in
clarifying certain aspects of an accident or injury when legal liability is in
question. The form may be requested as evidence in the event of a lawsuit.
• Foreseeable incidents should be considered in advance. For example, student
athletes with allergies or special conditions that may require treatement should
be identified and approrpriate treatements should be available on site e.g., an
EpiPen.
• Staff should have written instructions regarding accident, injury or incident
reporting and follow-up procedures (use Appendix L).
• An emergency action plan to deal with accidents, injuries or incidents in
interschool athletic activities should be developed in all schools (use Appendix
L as an example.)
• Current legislation in Alberta dictates that the Alberta Bill of Rights and the
following legislation will be adhered to at the school level:
o
Alberta School Act
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Safety Guidelines for Secondary Interschool Athletics in Alberta - February 2012