By Adam Studzinski
NORMAL – Grove Elementary School students spent part of Thursday afternoon learning about electricity safety.
The company put its My Safety City on display for students. Ameren Community Relations Coordinator Paula Thornton said the presentation uses a series of different situations to teach children how to be safe around electricity.
“The school bus is probably our best part of the presentation. Kids get really interactive with it,” said Thornton. “We ask them what they would do if they were on a school bus and there’s a downed power line. Most kids say that they would get off the bus, but this class said that they would stay on the bus, which is, of course, the right answer.”
Thornton added Thursday’s group could have had “some future engineers.”
“Some of them were asking really detailed questions about electricity going through helium and the chemical reaction that takes place,” she said.
Thornton said Ameren does a lot of these demonstrations because safety is the number one priority.
“One of the things, obviously, is to stay away from substations; to stay away from substations. If they’re around lightening to stay away from that,” said Thornton. “Avoidance is the best practice in general.”
Thornton explained not only is it a way to teach children about electricity safety, but they take that information home and spread the message to their families.
Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].
