Ag Safety Day has highest attendance to date

    Ag Safety Day began as a summer community local event.
    During the 2015-2016 school year, Ag Safety Day became a Chase County Schools (CCS) event for K-6 students.
    On Monday, CCS held the largest event to date which included Wauneta-Palisade and home-school children K-6.
    There were 474 students in attendance at the Chase County fairgrounds, said Chris Tomky, Progressive Agriculture Safety Day coordinator.
    “This was our sixth and largest safety day ever,” she said.
    There were 10 demonstration stations. The students were divided into 10 groups of 40 to 50 per group, said Tomky.
    The Progressive Ag Foundation provided T-shirts for all the students and color-coded hats for each group.
    “The overall objective for Ag Safety Day is to educate kids on how to make the safest choices possible by being well-informed,” Tomky explained.
    There was a large variety of subjects provided to the students that involved hands-on demonstrations.
    Katie Miller, a high school teacher and internet safety and technology speaker from the Fresno area in California, spoke to K-6 students on Monday prior to the Safety Day activities at the fairgrounds.
    Miller manned one of the ag event stations on the subject of internet safety and cyber bullying, said Tomky.
    Miller detailed the importance of being wary of submitting information on the internet or opening requests from strangers.
    “Once you push ‘Post’ on the internet, you no longer own it,” Miller said.
    Tomky shared that children can be prosecuted along with their parents by posting inappropriate material on the internet. The parents are responsible for activity under their  phone contracts and Apps, which are also a contract.
    Tomky also explained how Miller talked about the effect of posting immoral or questionable material on the internet. It can haunt an individual down the road with job searches and receiving scholarships for schools.
    “There are so many students applying for scholarships to universities that there is a list of criteria they must meet successfully. Having an immoral internet presence at any time would disqualify a student from receiving a scholarship,” said Tomky.
    Miller uses internet technology to verify student information and internet activity at the University of California, Berkeley, she said.
    Miller also gave a presentation at CCS to 7-12 students on Tuesday morning.
    Tomky said the students were instructed to Google the person sitting next to them, and they were surprised what all could be found on the internet.
    Miller stressed caution when on the internet for safety sake.
    Other stations on Monday that provided information to the groups included a 911 simulator demonstrated by Troy Cordle  from Lincoln, who is the state 911 field coordinator for the Nebraska Public Service Commission. Students were taught how and when to make a 911 call.
    Susan Harris from the University of Nebraska-Kearney gave instruction on ATV safety using an ATV simulator.
    Dorothy and Justin Grusing presented firearm safety.
    BlueGun.com donated solid plastic blue guns, valued at $2,000 total, that simulate the exact shape and weight of an actual gun for the purpose of teaching gun safety.
    Southwest Public Power District conducted a session on electrical safety.

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