Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Safety Issue for 11 Year Old High Chemisty Student

My child is being considered for a second 2-year grade skip (he skipped grades 4-6) and would be skipping from grade 8-10 (from middle to high school). There is some concern at the high school as to whether there are any legal OSHA or other safety limitations on a student in a High School Chemistry lab course (grade 10). There seems to be some concerns about his height (he is not gone through puberty yet and will be barely 11 w/summer birthday) but is certainly normal height for a 10 year old.

I personally have no concerns at all and believe my son to be very responsible so in my mind this is not a real issue (even if he had to use a stool which is certainly not the case). Has anyone else here ever encountered resistance for this reason during radical acceleration?

Thanks for any advice! Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!

What if he were a very short sixteen year old? Would he not be allowed to take chemistry? If he were in a wheelchair would he not be allowed to take chemistry?

Those are excellent points that I never thought of. I don't know (hope not) if they are going to make an issue of this. However he is almost 5 feet tall and certainly there could be not-insignificant numbers of fully grown women that are this height. Should be interesting to see how this plays out. They also mentioned to me that there are some chemicals that cannot be handled by minors. Since most of his classmates will be 15 or 16, this would be a problem for them as well.

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I went to school at 11, and did Chemistry - we used many chemicals,including the various nasty acids, bunsen burners, all kinds of apparatus - and even now I am only just five feet tall, so was definitely shorter then ! I can't for the life of me see why his height would be a problem.

The school my son attends allows for dual enrollment at the university. The head of the chem dept at the college told me personally that if my son is ready before he is tall enough, he will be set up at a wheel chair friendly station for labs. If the university doesn't see a problem with an 4' 8yo, you should be fine.