student issues

[Automat!c]

Hi

 

I got a bit of a dilemma , We got a students that faints a lot (pots) sometimes shakes a lot and sometime forms at the mouth ,But after 15-20 minutes she is ok, She told us recently about lighting that might affect her maybe strobes or fast cross fades etc , I said to my line boss that she should not be allowed on stage until she be seen by the doctors/ speclists to see if that stage lighting could affect her and if so and the appropriate medication treatment to help her under stage lighting , All the H&S people have got on board but its a bit slow because the show is this Thursday and we start the plotting tomorrow ....

 

What should I do?

 

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[the kid]

1st off that kinda thing, that should have been declared from day one / as soon as it was known. And I am guessing that from the description there has been numerous doctor visits so at least something should be somewhere.

 

I would hope that a phonecall is made home each time as well, and simply everyone has to step up and say no, until you get what you need to be safe or make other people happy. Frankly if it is a regular thing I hope there is a file somewhere with an appropriate risk assessment and action plan, maybe a safeguarding and first aid plan for when the student hits a certain point and has not "recovered"

 

We had a "similar" situation, it was tough but simply saying no WAS the best way until everyone was happy.

[paulears]

This one is easy. The college have a statutory duty of care. She must not be put in to a environment that is unsafe. She has a medical condition that should mean medical opinion is necessary to assess if she can take part, or perhaps what features must be taken into account.

 

Presumably she has photosensitive epilepsy? If she needs to take part, and is well enough, then you need to remove any conditions likely to trigger the condition.

 

That said, it's really not your job to make these decisions. Her doctor needs to advise what works against her. In a college environment, there are designated staff who have to sort this stuff out. Do you really want to get involved in what is clearly a pastoral issue?

 

It is not just H&S, it is far more important than that. If she is under 18, then her parents/guardians need to have already been talking to the college. It's clearly not safe to have somebody who is likely to be injured or perhaps cause injury to others taking part in activities that could trigger an attack. Perfectly routine activities could be out of the question, or have stringent extra safety precautions applied as a result. It is not acceptable for her to to just say fast strobes or crossfades are a problem. Her medical condition may also cause grief with privacy - the college may need information, but then not be able to share it. You must not do what you think best. You need to make sure your concerns are addressed. Document these concerns and pass them up. Somebody will have to make a decision.

 

To be honest, the fact you mention she shakes and foams at the mouth means there should already be in place a plan to look after this person. It's not acceptable nowadays to have somebody who needs adjustments made to keep them safe to just 'be there'. When I was teaching in college, we had somebody who had occasional seizures and the group she worked with frequently all had a short specially designed 'first-aid' type course which they all volunteered for - so they all knew how to put her in the recovery position, check her airway - that kind of thing. They never actually needed to do it, but it made sense.

 

In the meantime, it cannot do any harm to remove abrupt changes in lighting state, no strolling or flashing - that kind of thing, just in case. Somebody needs to sort this, and it's a management function, especially if she has to be excluded. Doing this is probably an admission of failure and poor management. You can manage almost anything with proper planning.

[Ynot]

Hmm....

That sounds like a DEFINITE trip to the GP at the very least. 'Stage lighting' as such isn't likely to induce epileptic incidence even if it's flashed as the warmup /cool down timescales of tungsten/halogen fixtures is get really too long to be termed stroboscopic. That doesn't go for actual strobes or LED kit that can of course emulate high speed flash rates.

However, if you can identify a specific root cause for these episodes then the answer is simple - don't use that .But this student really MUST find out what medically is causing the issues.

[Brian]

'Stage lighting' as such isn't likely to induce epileptic incidence even if it's flashed as the warmup /cool down timescales of tungsten/halogen fixtures is get really too long to be termed stroboscopic.

 

It's worth noting that some people with PSE, if that's what she has, are sensitive to quite slow changes of light levels whilst some are simply sensitive to bright lights and others to static patterns with the action of them moving their head enough to cause a problem. The range of frequencies is also very wide from a few Hz up to 50Hz or more with some people affected by fluorescent lighting (and I guess these days cheap LED lighting too).

 

It's a big mistake to simply equate PSE with strobes; it's way more complex a condition than that.

[Junior8]

You have done the right thing, sadly she has to come out. If nothing else you need to know what the condition actually is and what steps you need to take in the case of an episode. When I was teaching we had protocols for all students with this kind of condition and all erred on the side of caution. In the case of conditions under investigation - not all with this kind of symptom esp. fainting are epeleptics - public performance may simply be impossible until a diagnosis has been made

[Jivemaster]

Shakes and foams at the mouth is serious, Someone needs to get her doctor and her parents to tell you what is happening and what the action plan should be.

 

Someone needs to take a realistic look at "stage" whether back stage or on stage as a sensible career for this student, as dark places, ultra bright places, strobing and serious noise will always be nearby.

 

Remember someone keeled over on stage and died just like that, because help wasn't there instantly.

[paulears]

For people who have these kinds of conditions, and their parents, often don't see them as as a problem. Indeed, sometimes they are 'sent' to arts subjects as some weird kind of therapy. I once discovered that a student had frequent psychotic episodes, and had them controlled by drugs, which from time to time, he forgot to take. The results were frightening for some others in the group - he'd get stuck in a character, and although never violent to others, he would rant and rave and hurt himself. None of us knew how to deal with this, the management felt they couldn't do anything, and his parents seems simply happy he was mixing with others, and assured us he'd never hurt anyone. Every single teacher spent their class time with one eye and ear on him, and frankly it wasn't something any of us had signed up for! We were not some kind of therapy. If somebody has epilepsy, then you can train staff to deal with it - but it should be optional, and while some people don't have issues with this kind of thing, many other people do. Vomit, blood and poo clearance is something a person is willing to do or not - but in many colleges, Cleaning staff who know how to do it properly are rarely available during the day, so somebody has to do it. If somebody has a fit - dealing with it is not easy, or nice.

 

There is another aspect. Is having somebody in a group who limits your choice of material, good for the others? I'm all for inclusivity, but at some point it becomes exclusive. Is it right to restrict the budding lighting designer by limiting what they are able to do? Other disciplines can also be restricted for the benefit of the one student with an issue. Fifteen years ago I had a fit myself - but luckily, just one, it never happened again and wasn't diagnosed as anything. When I went back to work after a week or so, everyone drove me mad by suggesting maybe I shouldn't be up the ladder, or shouldn't be on my own, or tons of other concerns they had. People try to help, but getting it right is very, very difficult.

 

Political correctness suggests everything should be accessible to everyone.

 

I did once prevent my bosses taking on a deaf student who wanted to do music technology - it had been suggested as being 'good for her'. Art had a application from a totally blind person. The problem was solved by the exam criteria. In both subjects, passing requires working eyes or ears. We had crazy meetings to discuss if a person deaf in one ear could pass without the marks for 'stereo width'or if there was a way to generate some kind of special consideration. The exam board in the end concluded that making changes to allow a deaf person to pass took the examination outside acceptable standards, but until then, everyone was panicking.

 

We did have some complaints from parents of the other students - they didn't have to be politically correct, and were very blunt.

 

In schools, they have to provide kids with any kind of problem appropriate assistance - but colleges are stuffed!

[kerry davies]

The diagnosis as to what is wrong or causes the difficulty is beyond us but our course of action is clear. If the person is in danger or endangers others in any specific environment then they must be removed from that environment. If s/he comes into the space and has fits then they cannot be allowed entry, simple as.

 

Political correctness is not the problem if someone has fits when they enter a space. Making them enter and expecting others to cope is stupidity.

[paulears]

Inclusivity in education means that they will simply adjust the course and environment to allow the person to take part!

 

I remember every work surface in the studios and video edit suites being raised to allow one girl in a wheelchair to fit under every one, everyone else was then working with a desk at their armpit level, as there was no budget for higher office chairs! She gave it up half way through, and the worktops were left at the crazy height, just in case. Adjusting just one desk was seen as paying lip service, so they did an entire department. People were bringing in their own cushions and stealing bar style chairs from the restaurant! The idea of saying NO, is not something colleges seem to risk. I've been out for a while now, but my friends tell me it's worse, not better now!

[Simon Lyall]

That's an awful solution Paul, but how am I not surprised that they took a blind shotgun method! Something more sensible might have been putting in a high adjustable set of surfaces on. Accessible technology is not impossible, I've installed an accessible recording studio for example, and high adjustable tables have been a life saver. I've even seen a whole kitchen, including cupboards, put on an electric hight adjuster at The Orpheus Centre, they use it as a teaching kitchen and it's brilliant!

 

As others have said, and I'll echo, you need to consider what things you need to tweak to make it accessible to the individual. If that means changing your lighting, then you may have to get a bit creative in how you light the show. Theatre is often about the suspension of disbelief: Does the thunder flash have to be a strobe for example? Can it be something more suggestive? Things like that. There are always solutions which can sometimes feel like a compromise, but with creative thinking can end up being seamless and not demean a production, or make things 'inaccessible' to those not disabled.

 

Simon