• @[email protected]
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      32 hours ago

      It looks in the same category as equipment like lawnmowers. That is, kids shouldn’t be operating them, especially not without close supervision and thorough safety training.

    • @Gigasser
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      224 hours ago

      Tbh, sounds like child labor to me even if it was “legal”. Like school credit for hours on a construction job wtf? Like I thought maybe he was some how doing a metal working/machinist class and somehow got fucked up by a lathe or something, but Jesus fucking Christ, what are you gonna learn doing construction work?

      • @MirthfulAlembic
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        123 minutes ago

        There’s a ton of practical knowledge and skills a student could learn from a properly structured experience in construction. The focus needs to be on education first with productivity being a bonus, however, which I’m skeptical was the case here due to the outcome.

      • @SirSamuel
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        251 minutes ago

        I learned to read a tape measure, covert fractions to decimal, practical application of the Pythagorean theorem, and quite a bit about the application of dimensions and measurement in three dimensional space.

        I didn’t think it’s bad for a kid to have a job, provided the hours are limited, do not interfere with schooling, and are integrated into school curriculum. Parents also have a duty to monitor the employer, and the employer should view the teenager as a trainee who might make the company money as an adult, not a source of direct profit.

        So, you know, a fantasy

      • @sunbrrnslapper
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        2 hours ago

        I got school credit working at McDonalds. You learn all sorts of stuff, like how to show up on time (something I was shocked I would have to later teach people as a manager) and I personally learned the phrase “you got time to lean, you got time to clean” (which I use to this day to irritate my children). Obviously, no child should be put into a dangerous job, but you do lean some things by actually experiencing the work environment. And construction is a legit, respectable job/career that (if done right/safely) a teen could learn a lot from.

              • @[email protected]
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                149 minutes ago

                You are supposed to learn more at school than just the classes. Among other things you should learn how to interact with other humans in a decent way, and how to not be tardy, how your actions affect others, and more

                Then again, we are talking about america

      • Flying Squid
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        104 hours ago

        Jesus fucking Christ, what are you gonna learn doing construction work?

        Wheelchair-based sports apparently.

    • @Buffalox
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      4 hours ago

      I couldn’t even read the whole thing, it made me too sick!
      I don’t know American regulation, but there is absolutely no way that would be a legal workplace here.
      Handling such machinery requires a certificate. Even a simple forklift does.

      • @AbidanYre
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        43 minutes ago

        Sounds like it wasn’t legal there either.

        But the place that’s going to illegally let a 16 year old use a ditch witch probably isn’t too concerned with proper safety training either.

      • FuglyDuck
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        245 hours ago

        wanna know what’s really getting to me?

        There’s a very high chance he wasn’t even being paid a proper wage (it’s required that they’re paid minimum wage. But I doubt very much that they paid higher than that.) And, there’s a non-zero chance that somebody at the school or schoolboard was taking kickbacks for the cheap labor.

        in any case, looking at their Child Labor Laws would expressly forbid this.

        Specifically in non-agro:

        • Operating forklifts or other heavy equipment such as earthmovers, tractors, backhoes, etc.
        • Loading, operating, or unloading of paper/cardboard balers or compactors
        • Jobs where respiratory protection or hearing protection is required

        and in construction:

        • Wrecking, demolition, trenching, or excavating