Fairfield has traversing walls in three of its 11 elementary schools, and 20-foot-high walls in the three middle schools. Using the high walls involves wearing a helmet, a harness attached to a belaying rope and one or more students or belayers holding on to the rope for safety.
David Abraham, Fairfield Public Schools physical education coordinator, said the three elementary schools use the lower traversing walls, purchased either through a grant or fund-raiser.
The tall climbing walls in the three middle schools were installed in the mid-1990s and paid for by school funds. Each wall is about 30 feet wide and can take up to four students at once. Four students hold onto a belaying rope as another climbs wearing a helmet and with a harness attached to the rope.
Fairfield and Stratford use a nationally accredited program, Project Adventure, with their climbing walls.
"Project Adventure is an interdisciplinary program that involves experience-based learning in a non-traditional setting, and fosters positive independence among group members," Abraham said. "It's good for middle school students who have unique needs during times of increased growth and stress."
Stratford has climbing walls in its middle and high schools, funded partly by grants and partly by the school budget, said Jeremy O'Connell, a physical education and certified Project Adventure teacher at Bunnell High School.
Bunnell and Stratford high schools have had their walls 10 years. Both are about 25 feet high and 20 feet wide. Each can take three different groups. "I'm in the background, making sure all is safe," O'Connell said.
Project Adventure requires each class to have a belay school for a few weeks in the fall, he said.
"It involves a peer evaluation, skills test and a written test," O'Connell said. "No one is allowed to climb and belay until they've passed that.
"Parents must sign permission slips for a student to participate in any curricular activity," he said. "Ideally, with a climbing wall, if you fall, you don't land. You just hang from where you came off."
The high school program in Stratford involves juniors only in a full-year program. Seniors may be facilitators to help the teachers. The seventh- and eighth-grade middle schools at Wooster and Flood also have Project Adventure, but the only belayer is the teacher.
Thomas Beirne, an insurance broker in Milford, said his agency handles climbing-wall insurance for YMCAs and schools. "You can't be insured without a trained supervisor," Beirne said. "Each school or facility needs a trained supervisor to be there watching."
He said this applies only to the 20-foot-high type of wall. "There is no concern for the low wall because there's padding under it. It's not that high."
The supervisor also needs to make sure everyone knows how to belay the rope, which is part of the instruction. Equipment such as helmets and harnesses must be monitored for wear, and a log or record maintained on each participant's progress and skills.