Posted on 11/09/2005 7:02:11 AM PST by ElkGroveDan
A boy of 10 was blinded in one eye as he watched the recent partial eclipse of the sun from his school playground.
The parents of Conor Howard expressed their concern yesterday about playground supervision after learning that the damage is permanent.
Conor, who wanted to be a pilot when he left school, is having specialist treatment. He had perfect 20/20 vision but now has severely restricted sight.
Conor was at morning break in the playground of St Nicholas School in Cranleigh, Surrey, last month when a friend shouted for him to look at the eclipse.
Closing one eye, he looked directly at the sun with the other. "I could see that there was a bit out of the bottom of the sun and thought it was cool," said Conor. "I looked at it for about a minute."
After playing football, he looked at the eclipse again and later went blind in his right eye.
Conor's mother, Serena Howard, 32, said: "It was the duty of the school to warn the children of the dangers. They could have changed the break time or kept them indoors."
She said Conor went home complaining that his eyes were misty. Three days later he was struggling to see the largest letters on an optician's test card.
A hospital examination revealed that the eye had been burnt and the damage was permanent. Mrs Howard, who has three other children, said she wanted schools to have to be aware of the dates of eclipses by law.
Catherine Reynolds, the head teacher at St Nicholas, said: "This is an unfortunate incident and our thoughts are with the family.
"I believe the school has continually promoted sun safety. Conor was present in an assembly two weeks earlier when the dangers of the sun were spelled out to children. We shall look to see if any lessons can be learned in the future."
Conor has written to Tony Blair asking for more warnings to be given to young people about looking towards the sun.
That line from the Manfred Man song always seemed dumb to me. Now apparently it appears that some kids actually do that.
And she says she had no responsibility to warn her own children?
"Mother blames school after boy is blinded by eclipse - sues President Bush"
...another Bush's Fault :)
"Kids, today is a special day. Today there is an eclipse of the sun. This is a rare occurence, and it will probably be years before you get another chance to see it. The good news is that the eclipse will occur during your regularly scheduled outdoor play time. The bad news, is that I am going to keep you inside today, with the blinds down, because I am afraid of your stupid parents."
My mom taught me that if something hurts you should probably stop doing it.
I remember this was a big deal back in middle school -- they gave stern warnings about this stuff - but the school got some welding masks we could use to look at it directly.
He's 10. My son is 6 and knows not to look directly at the sun during an eclipse or any other time. This parent is placing her responsibilities on the school to teach her son everything because she is too lazy or too stupid.
"Stop doing that or you'll go blind!"
"I could see that there was a bit out of the bottom of the sun and thought it was cool," said Conor. "I looked at it for about a minute."
If there was only A BIT OUT OF THE BOTTOM it would still hurt to look at the sun. What was this kid thinking??
If an aspiring pilot gets severe vision problems after staring at the sun for a minute, does he get the Darwink Award?
(No, I didn't add any keywords or notice any before starting to write this post.)
uh, dude...that's The Boss...
At first, she wanted to sue Sun Oil. ;^)
That really takes a lot of staring. We were warned early and often not to do it. So most kids tried a little and did fine. He must have have eye-lock on the sun.
I know the solution - label the sun. "Do not stare at me at any time. The FDA and NIMH have found that staring MAY cause blindness."
Be honest, folks. Would you want a kid like that to be a pilot on your flight?
Maybe they don't do that kind of stuff with kids any more.
Yeah, I always forgot who wrote it/sang it first. Manfred Man's re-cut turned it into a hit first, and then Bruce's original began to climb the charts after that. Same thing happened to John Cougar Mellencamp when Pat Benatar re-did "I Need a Lover"
she just doesn't want the truth to come out that her son was notoriously guilty of sitting very close to the television, and a couple dozen Victoria Secret catalogs were found hidden between his mattreses...
The mother should be blaming the boy's genetically deficient parents.
Didn't the kid have any natural instincts at all? As in, "The sun is hurty, I'm going to look at something else."
I was thinkin' the same. I'd rather he be starin' at the runway.
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