There could be a batch of mad scientists unable to teach in their classrooms starting in July, with the General Assembly’s approval of House Bill 42.

The bill, recently signed into law by Gov. Beverly Purdue, requires stringent training of science teachers, heightened safety practices, and personal protective gear in science classes and laboratories in all of the state’s public middle and high schools.

The new measure also declared “no local board of education shall apply for a certificate of occupancy for any new middle or high school building until the plans for the science laboratory areas of the building have been reviewed and approved to meet accepted safety standards for school science laboratories and related preparation rooms and stock rooms.”

Backers of the bill say the state has been lax in applying safety guidelines to science instruction and the handling of potentially dangerous materials in classrooms. But critics worry about the costs the new rules would impose on school districts’ capital budgets. There are also concerns over a perceived lack of specificity in the guidelines.

Although H.B. 42 is a “watered-down version of the first bill introduced,” Rep. Ray Rapp, D-Madison, said he continued to support the legislation because safety features are often overlooked in science classrooms.

Now that the law is passed, Rapp said specific, uniform requirements will be developed among the State Board of Education, the Department of Public Instruction, and the university system. The new guidelines will apply to science classrooms across the state.

“We are being upfront here,” Rapp said. “What we’ve got to do is provide an environment that is as safe as it is practical.”

Linda Stroud, a certified educator with Science and Safety Consulting Services in Raleigh and a former teacher with 18 years of experience, said the stricter measures are long overdue. Stroud said untrained teachers often don’t know the difference between mercury and silver, let alone understand how to deal with an emergency situation when students are present.

She also said untrained teachers often do not know how chemicals can degrade over time and produce a potentially life-threatening scenario in the classroom.

“Many of the chemicals used in chemistry are housed in storerooms that are unventilated,” Stroud said. “There are no temperature controls. In the summertime, in the South, the chemicals sit in a closed-off room and get hot, hot, hotter. As a result, they break down, and it’s almost impossible to know what they are anymore or what reaction will occur when they are mixed together.”

In contrast, Terry Stoops, education policy analyst at the John Locke Foundation, says the costs to meet the new standards would hit school districts hard.

“What do they want to achieve here?” Stoops asked. “Things like this add up to big money.”

Baker Mitchell, founder of Charter Day School in Leland and Columbus Charter School in Whiteville, said valuable time is wasting before the law goes into effect next summer.

“I’ve got no comment because I don’t understand the bill,” he said. “It’s too vague. Who’s setting the standards, and what labs [would] it apply to? Nothing in the bill is defined. There’s no specificity stated in the bill, and they need to nail down the standards.”

Mitchell said he’s not against supporting normal safety standards in science rooms and laboratories, but he feels anything above and beyond those basic standards would be extremely costly for public schools around the state.

“I hope they are reasonable and rational,” he stressed. “Let’s hope it’s not out of kilter.”

Meantime, Stroud said she hopes the State Board of Education fully embraces and supports the new law. “Right now, money is the problem,” she said. “Unfortunately, a tough economic climate can put science safety on the back burner.”

Karen Welsh is a contributor to Carolina Journal.