There was a communal gasp as students from Pilgrim High School watched a video of Steven Lessard taking out his fake eye on Thursday afternoon.

Lessard, a Toll Gate graduate, lost his left eye in an accident at work. Working as a machinist, Lessard was working on a machine when it was accidentally turned on. A small metal bar flew into his eye, permanently damaging it.

His story is now shared throughout the state by Young Employee Safety Rhode Island (YES RI), a program for young adults beginning to make the transition into the work field. Retired Chief Judge George Healy established the program 11 years ago to help students know their rights in the workplace and how to keep themselves safe.

Although Lessard is a Pilgrim graduate, this is the first time the program has ever been brought to the school. More than 50 students took part in the presentation.

Karin Greaves, special education teacher at Pilgrim, met Healy last summer and suggested the program come to the school.

Around 1,000 children under the age of 20 are injured at work and Healy said the reality is probably much higher because many young adult workers never report their injuries. Only the most severe of cases are the ones that come before the worker’s compensation court.

Nationally, nearly 200,000 young workers are injured, but for similar reasons that number is a low projection. Seventy children across the country lose their lives due to a work accident.

Healy said that young workers are often afraid they will lose a job, cause trouble if they report their injury or are even pressured out of it.

“Kids work hard to do a good job, they often try and go above and beyond to prove themselves,” Healy said. “There’s also this sense of invincibility with kids that they could never get hurt. This is why they get hurt so often.”

During the presentations he always asks who has been hurt on the job and hands fly up, but when he then asks if any of them have reported it there are always far less hands to be raised.

Although Healy said that most injuries are cuts and burns, because most of the jobs are in retail and fast food, that work accidents can be “absolutely life changing.”

In the last several years, due to hard economic times, Healy said more and more teenagers are looking for work, but having a harder time securing a job. Because of this they are willing to take anything, work under the table or even under unsafe conditions. Especially in less affluent communities young adults can be working in dangerous situations, where their income may be the only one coming in for a household.

The presentation explains to students their rights as workers, safe work practices, what they are and are not able to do at a job, and how to talk to their employers about things they may not be comfortable doing to prevent injuries. Should something happen at work the presentation also offers the knowledge of what to do under those circumstances.

“These aren’t favors, these are your rights,” Healy said to the students. “At this age no job is important enough to risk your safety. You are the next generation of leaders, so we need you to protect yourselves.”

Over the last 11 years the program has reached approximately 15,000 students from 15 to 18 years old. YES RI is an all-volunteer partnership between the Division of Workers’ Compensation, Department of Labor and Training, Beacon Mutual Insurers and private attorneys and safety organizations.

Tim Costa, a safety consultant for Beacon Mutual, shared the story of his first job at a pool company and how at only 16 he was asked to drive a forklift without any training. On that first day he lost control of the vehicle, thankfully without hurting anyone. He shared stories of some clients where injuries snowballed into huge life events.

“I’ve seen little things turn into big things really fast. A cut on an arm that got infected leads to an amputation of a man’s arm,” he said. “We want you to have a boring day at work; it means your safe.”

Healy said, “Kids leave this empowered. They can talk with their employers and use this material to protect themselves in the workplace.”