Peel District School Board fined $50K after student injured in classroom mishap

BRAMPTON, Ont. – A Toronto-area school board has been fined $50,000 after a student suffered a fracture in a classroom incident.

Peel District School Board pleaded guilty in a Brampton, Ont., court to failing to take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker in a workplace as a result of the April 2014 incident.

Three students at a Mississauga, Ont., school were attending a manufacturing program class and were assigned the task of removing four old caster wheels from a metal table.

A 204-kilogram metal industrial shear that had been brought to the school by the teacher, without the knowledge of the school administration, was on the table.

As instructed by their teacher the students used a floor jack to raise one end of the table and cut off one of the legs, including the old caster wheel.

When the jack was lowered the table tipped forward and the shear slid off the table, landing on the back of one of the students, who did not know that the shear was not secured to the work table.