Parkrose High School students win safety video contest
Beaverton, Albany teams also earn prizes
Students at Parkrose High School in Portland won $500 for their first-place video titled “Rewind” in an annual safety video contest that promotes young worker safety and the importance of speaking up.
The video takes a page from the Mannequin Challenge, a viral Internet trend, with young workers frozen in various scenes of workplace accidents. It imagines reversing time to eliminate hazards by wearing protective gloves, using a ladder safely, and handling electrical equipment properly.
Parkrose High School also won a matching amount of prize money. The win marks the second year in a row that Parkrose has won first place. In last year’s contest, the school won both first- and second-place prizes.
Justin Arandia, a senior at Parkrose who oversaw the video’s direction, recording, and editing, said he and his classmates learned a lot from the process.
“It’s so easy to make mistakes when trying to complete a job that involves dangerous equipment,” he said. “The public needs to be educated on how to properly use these tools to prevent any injuries.”
Winning first place is an honor, Arandia added. “I am very proud of all the students who were involved, making all of this possible,” he said. “They put so much work into creating ‘Rewind’.”
The other members of the Parkrose High School team are:
Sophia Swim
Anna Kotris
Eli Brave Hawk
Elizabeth Simkovic
Juney Prasad
Hunter Osborn
Eddie Penalver
Rohan Ravi
Mason Swinehart
Edwin Melo-Molina
Hector Amezola
Jacob Mansfield
Julia Bardocz
Shastina Hardman
Evelyn Ortiz-Vargas
Denis Cehic
Emiliano Flores
Kim Townsend
Second- and third-place prizes also were awarded. They are as follows:
Second place ($400)
“Your Future’s On Its Way”
Southridge High School, Beaverton
Isaac O’Farrell
Davis Keeter
Nathan Parrott
Nicholas Rex
Brendan Long
Third place ($300)
“Speak Up”
West Albany High School, Albany
John Nordal
Kyle Smith
The creators of the top videos were presented their awards on Saturday during a special screening at Northern Lights Theatre and Pub in Salem. Sponsored by the Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O organizes the contest. The sponsors are Oregon OSHA, SAIF Corporation, local Oregon chapters of the American Society of Safety Engineers, the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, Hoffman Construction, Central Oregon Safety & Health Association, the SHARP Alliance, the Construction Safety Summit, SafeBuild Alliance, and the Oregon Farm Bureau Health and Safety Committee.
###
Oregon OSHA, a division of the Department of Consumer and Business Services, enforces the state’s workplace safety and health rules and works to improve workplace safety and health for all Oregon workers. For more information, visit www.osha.oregon.gov.
The Oregon Young Employee Safety Coalition (O[yes]) is a nonprofit dedicated to preventing young worker injuries and fatalities. O[yes] members include safety and health professionals, educators, employers, labor and trade associations, and regulators. For more information, go to http://youngemployeesafety.org/.
Contact information:
Aaron Corvin, Public Information Officer
971-718-6973
aaron.corvin@oregon.gov
