AIBU to think they put us in danger

[Heartbrokengirl14]

I work in a school. Yesterday there was a gas leak, it was very strong, could smell it before I reached the entrance. SLT decided to delay start to the day and send students home if they had already arrived. Children were all fine.
However all staff where made to sit in a gas filled school and wait for 2 hours before being sent home as school had to wait to see if the gas board could quickly fix it and the school could reopen.
I understand there is a procedure and they need permission to close the school but surely exposing the staff to a gas is plan stupid. Or do other schools do this?
AIBU to contact the union and complain? Would they do anything?

The study might be old but lots of similar work has been undertaken since. Crowd psychology being a focus of much of them - which shows that most people look to someone they 'think' is a leader of sorts and follow whatever they do. Diffusion of responsibilty is another wherein people assume someone else has, or will, deal with the issue and so they don't need to act or make a decision.

Humans also show a reduced ability to determine danger for yourself when you are with others - such as the case about 15 years ago in which something like 20 watched a girl raped and assaulted but didn't act. They explained that because no one else was reacting they did not think they were watching a real crime.

Finally, more recent work shows that people are are more likely to get a sense of safety by staying near others vs moving away from the threat. This makes it harder for someone to step up and leave a room (away from the gas) if everyone else is staying.

In short, we are weird and more controlled by social group instinct then we perhaps can recognise...

We had a bomb scare at the college I was working in, we were told to stay indoors it was fine, just a little bag.

Five of us waited outside. From the staff and students. We'd all been caught in bombings in London (albeit all fine), yes it was a very long time ago!

I got a warning for leaving college, got nowhere with it, because it was just a little bag so "fine".

we are wierd and more controlled by social group instinct than we realise

I agree with that.

The station we were in people got trapped as there was a lot of talk about "just another threat" "no need to rush" "they've not named this station" etc. My family member just ran for the steps and we got out.

For goodness sake!it sounds like a child wrote this! You were 'made' to sit in a gas filled room?
Did they lock you in?
Have none of you the common sense to wait outside?
I'd be very worried if you were in charge of a child of mine if you are really that daft to do this.

Try contacting your local council and HSE.

I work in a primary school. I would have walked out. This is a breech of H&S rules. Contact your union. I can't believe you all stayed in. No one would make me stay in a gas filled room. Whoever made that decision needs to be educated.

Have none of you seen the Gas ads GET OUT AND STAY OUT! common sense should tell you that. I hope no one was using a mobile phone in there.

Most people got headaches. I was ill. Not massively so but enough to through up. My husband drove me straight to the walk in clinic and was not very happy.

Report it to the Health and Safety Executive. Anonymous and free, and that's the sort of thing they're set up to do.

I'm a little surprised you haven't thought of that already. You don't have to go through a procedure of reporting it to a union rep first.

www.hse.gov.uk/contact/concerns.htm

Fill in a form and send it off by email or simply phone them.

Ignore you don’t have a union rep in school you can still call your actual union. Go online and google their number.

It's easy to say 'I'd just have left' but not so easy to do in practice. It is difficult to go against the majority and we have no idea how vindictive that head and senior staff would be to having their authority flouted. If we all worked with lovely genuine people who don't hold grudges it would be wonderful but unfortunately a massive proportion of the population work with some complete and utter vindictive wankers! Sorry you were put in this position OP. I hope you do report to the Health and Safety Executive and they take appropriate action.

Just an additional thought - a gas explosion would take out most of a building and have repercussions for a considerable distance. Just 'standing outside' might help you not inhale gas, but in the event of an actual explosion you'd need to be quite a way away to avoid possibility of injury. So how far 'outside' would it be fair to stand?

So how far 'outside' would it be fair to stand?

Your own house

Did they stipulate that you had to stay in the building, could you not have sat in your car or pop to nearby cafe?

Hi there,
Just so you know, the OP has deregged so you won't be hearing any further thoughts from her.

Why on earth did you all follow the instruction to stay in inside the building??? Surely that was obviously insane?

You could try union but personally I would be in the Head’s office delivering a joint letter from all staff asking if they realise how badly they got it wrong.

Would also notify the Governors.