Reading this, the feeling of frustration comes through quite strongly. Apart from some false equivalences and whataboutisms in the article, there are some pertinent paragraphs.
To me, the key points are:
- Risk assessment is an established and widely accepted practice, but it is often seen as a bureaucratic burden or a document to CYA. (Cover Your A**)
- There is a lingering lack of trust placed in the people who perform the assessment and outline the mitigation strategies. It is worth noting that risk assessment (ideally) is a group effort, bringing in collective wisdom, buy-in and accountability.
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From Paddling Magazine
https://paddlingmag.com/stories/stop-sucking-life-kids-paddling-trips/
No more outings for the outing club. This was the gist of
the many newspaper headlines in April when Penn State University shared its
controversial risk management review of its 79 student clubs.
While the university publicly acknowledged the many benefits
students gain participating in outdoor activities like hiking, backpacking and
paddling, it also stated the university would no longer allow the 98-year-old
Outing Club to organize student-led, outdoor trips.
Campus Recreation at Penn State remains focused on providing
as many opportunities in the outdoors as possible, while also keeping safety as
a priority,” the statement read. The Outing Club, as well as Penn State’s
caving and diving clubs, were deemed to have “an unacceptable level of risk in
their current operation model.
IT’S ABSURD FOR A SCHOOL BOARD TO APPROVE A YEAR-END,
CAPSTONE PADDLING TRIP FOR STUDENTS WITH THE CAVEAT THERE IS NO SWIMMING
ALLOWED, EVEN IF EVERYONE WEARS A PFD
The university’s martial arts and rifle clubs were allowed
to continue. The Penn State Outing Club decision received a lot of press, but
it’s just one example in a trend sweeping across North America.
For more than a decade, there has been a noticeable erosion
of the joy factor on guided youth paddling trips. The culprit is the risk
management frenzy in our risk-averse society. These decisions are often made by
school board officials with a fear of litigation and a general lack of
familiarity with outdoor environments and activities.
Overbearing risk management plans are diluting the outdoor
experience. And from recent stories of school- and camp-organized trips, it’s
not surprising if a kid goes once and never wants to participate again.
It’s absurd for a school board to approve a year-end,
capstone paddling trip for students with the caveat there is no swimming
allowed, even if everyone wears a PFD.
Other programs mandate youth on trip are not allowed to
handle knives—pocket knives and kitchen knives—or stoke the fire. If kids can’t
swim, tend to the fire, whittle or help with dinner—what are they left doing?
Probably wishing they had Snapchat.
There are many benefits to learning to manage risk. In
healthy doses, outdoor risk builds confidence, independence, self-regulation
and other life skills. Are the real risks students face every day on and off
campus—driving to school, for example—smaller than those they would experience
on an organized paddling trip? And are they providing comparable benefits?
Certainly not.
If it was safety we were truly concerned about we would wear
helmets not just in rapids but in the van ride on the highway to the trailhead.
Data from one of the most comprehensive studies of whitewater rafting injuries
in the United States from 2002 highlights whitewater rafting—considerably more
risky than any flatwater trip—ranges from approximately 2.2 to 8.7 fatalities
per million participant days, whereas driving motor vehicles results in
approximately 152 fatalities per million participant days. Canoe and kayak
tripping fatalities didn’t make the list.
Contextualizing risk is important. According to the National
Safety Council in the United States, in 2009 there were 35,000 motor vehicle
fatalities, of which approximately 2,000 were children under the age of 16.
There were also 5,300 pedestrian fatalities, 8,600 fatalities from
unintentional public falls, 4,500 fatalities from unintentional public food
poisoning and 800 fatalities while bicycle riding.
Those numbers might sound scary but remember the U.S. had
306.8 million citizens in 2009. Approximately 610,000 died of heart disease the
same year. In the many real risks we encounter every day, outdoor recreation
barely makes the list yet receives disproportionate outcry.
A 2014 report by the NCAA revealed nearly one in 10 of the
United States’ 70,000 college football players reported suffering multiple
concussions during their college career, which is linked to long-term brain
damage, including higher rates of dementia. Why is an elevated risk of
injury—especially traumatic brain injury—acceptable on a sports field? Colleges
aren’t keeping stats on concussions in outdoor adventure because they’re so
rare.
We need to stand up for paddling and its minimal yet
inherent risks. These are inextricably linked to the joys and benefits of the
activity itself. As paddlers, we need to help schools, camps and community
groups move beyond a narrow safety-only focus.
If meeting safety standards is the sole mark of success for
a paddling trip, the bar is set very low. Should safety be a given? Yes. All
trips must be safe. Safety first, but not safety only. As safe as necessary,
but not as safe as possible. Let’s then move onto higher aspirations, goals and
motivations. Why not instead focus on instilling joy and a love of the activity
and the landscape.
To complement and parallel the many outdoor adventure risk
management conferences, we need joy management conferences. Time spent with
other guides, teachers and club leaders discussing the merits of a particular
campfire game, messy desserts and the best swimming holes. Time spent on
ensuring the next generation learns to cherish wild places, instead of fear
them.
On the slippery slope we’re descending, risk-averse
decisions could become paddling-adverse programs. And this would be joyless for
all.
About the authors
Bob Henderson, Ph.D has taught outdoor education at
university for more than 35 years. He is the author of Every Trail Has a Story:
Heritage Travel in Canada and More Trails, More Tales. For more information
visit www.bobhenderson.ca.
Ryan Howard, Ph.D. is the Director of Research,
Risk and Innovation with ALIVE Outdoors. He is a designated Canadian Risk
Manager and consults with government agencies, school boards and organizations
on a variety of risk management issues and audits.
