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A school girl who received tragic personal injury in an art class accident is likely to seek compensation from the education chiefs responsible for health and safety breaches at the school.
The 19-year-old lost all but two of her fingers after receiving terrible burns to her hands when, during an exercise where the class had been asked to make clay moulds, the pupil plunged her hands into plaster of Paris.
Chemical reactions in the plaster saw temperatures reach up to 60 degrees centigrade as the liquid set. Pupils, school staff and paramedics tried desperately to remove the solidifying mass, but eventually hospital health workers were forced to use power tools to free the girl's hands.
Plastic surgeons performed 12 operations to try to save her fingers, but tragically the 19-year-old has been left with only two digits.
The Health and Safety Executive were only notified six weeks after the accident when they were contacted by hospital staff, but the school should have notified them immediately.
Magistrates heard that there was an unacceptable lack of safety provisions at the school.
The prosecuting solicitor said, "The governors were not meeting the most basic of legal requirements. I do not believe this was a terrible accident. It could and should have been avoided if the governing body had monitored health and safety."
The school was ordered to pay £20,000 in fines and legal costs, and it has been reported that the personal injury victim now plans to sue education chiefs for £100,000 in accident compensation.
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