See also: NYSUT Health and Safety Resource Center

Lifting, bending, kneeling, typing - all these movements performed thousands of times in many jobs - can cause significant injuries. For special education teachers and BOCES aides and assistants, restraining students may be the most common hazard.

More than one-third of New York State United Teachers members who are School-Related Personnel and special education teachers work in chronic pain, according to a first-ever survey conducted by NYSUT.

The survey reveals that these members work in jobs that cause pain and discomfort in muscles, joints, nerves and tendons. Notably, the problems could be prevented simply through better training, equipment or working conditions. The science of fitting jobs to the workers is known as ergonomics.

The vast majority of employees, the report said, didn't even file workers' compensation claims; they consider the nagging injuries just a part of their jobs, or they didn't think it was serious enough.

"We're so used to being in pain, we take it for granted," said Sandra Carner, a teaching assistant at Saratoga Adirondack BOCES.

Called musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) or repetitive stress injuries (RSIs), these injuries can occur when a job is poorly designed, uses improper equipment or is poorly organized or paced.

One North Syracuse teacher is permanently disabled from restraining a student, said Sylvia Matousek, president of the North Syracuse Education Association. "The cost in terms of the emotional and physical pain to the teacher is heartbreaking," she said. "Additionally, we are losing a fine special education teacher."

Carner said the best intervention is training. After she was trained on ergonomics at NYSUT's capital district regional office, Carner took a new approach to routine tasks, learning to sit while wiping tables and to use a stadium seat while working with kids on the floor.

"Rethink before you do a task," she said,"about how you could do it without causing pain."

NYSUT surveyed SRPs, BOCES aides and assistants, and special education teachers because they were perceived to be at higher risk for MSDs, said Wendy Hord, health and safety specialist for NYSUT.

One of the most important things members can do is to report pain and discomfort to supervisors and union leaders, Hord said. If there are unreimbursed medical costs or lost work time from injuries, file a workers' compensation claim.

Without documentation, it is much harder to convince management there are ergonomic hazards that need to be fixed.

- Ned R. Hoskin