Tag! Nobody's "it" in Attleboro
Categories: Education, Gadgets & Tech, That's Entertainment
Principal Gaylene Heppe of Willett Elementary School in Attleboro, Massachussetts worries about her students' safety. So much so that she enforces a ban on tag, touch football, or any other games involving physical contact during recess. She cites the safety risks involved in such high-risk games, along with the school's liability were a student to be injured.Not everyone is totally keen on the idea. Even parent Colleen Bischoff was taken aback by the policy. "I was surprised....I think they should be allowed to. I used to run and chase, play kickball, dodgeball, all that," she said. Not anymore, at least not at Willet. Still, Attleboro is not alone in this. Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Spokane, Washington, and Charleston, South Carolina all banned tag at recess this year.
To be honest, I understand that kids can fall and get hurt, but realistically, that can happen anywhere, and in fact, I expect it to happen. Jared broke his arm when he was only three years old. I hope it doesn't happen again, but I won't be surprised if it does. I would rather the kids run around getting exercise than play it safe. What do you think?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mihir 10-18-2006 @ 1:01PM
I don't think we should necessarily blame the schools in this case.
I'd blame the lawsuit happy public and the blood-sucking lawyers that encourage a parent to sue if their child gets a scratch during a game.
Of course, schools should be held accountable for obvious negligence, but this is just sheer stupidity any way you look at it.
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ann adams 10-18-2006 @ 1:18PM
Here's what a commenter (Jessie) said on Kristin's "t.v. and autism" post yesterday.
"I think this generation of parents are out of control in this area. What happened to common sense?"
Indeed.
We are living in frightening times. There are so many things going on and I'm sure many of us, myself included, feel powerless.
Perhaps we're snatching at anything that will make us feel safer. I don't know but I do know that I don't want to raise kids who are afraid of their own shadow.
There has to be a middle ground somewhere between reasonable precaution and unreasonable fear. The trick is to find it.
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Jonathon 10-18-2006 @ 1:32PM
That's totally lame.
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thordora 10-18-2006 @ 1:42PM
So i guess the games of murderball we used to play are off limits now huh?
And people wonder how kids get overweight.....I used to run a better chance getting hurt by bad drivers walking home from school than by any sport I played...
silliness.
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david 10-18-2006 @ 2:44PM
I thought that as far as liability goes: they only way that someone can sue is if a person gets hurt on the park/playground if the equipment is not up to the most current codes. ?
If a parent can sue because a kid was running and fell on the ground for no reason this country is going to poop faster than I thought it was.
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maria 10-18-2006 @ 3:10PM
With all these concerns about childhood obesity - this teacher is nixing kids favorite activity? Good grief - how about making sure they have a safe place to play tag where falls won't cause too much damage???
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Sandy 10-18-2006 @ 7:31PM
About 7 years ago, I had my young kids at an elementary school playground after school hours. The after-care kids came out to play and one was running...on the rubber mat playground area....and the lady in charge yelled, "NO RUNNING!!!!!!!!!" in that nasty teacher voice (is there a course for that in college?).
My mouth just dropped open. What was wrong with this woman? Here the kids are, with their 15 minutes of outdoor time in the whole stinkin' day, and she's shrewing at them not to run. *sigh*
Sometimes I wonder if some people have a working brain inside of the head.
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April 10-18-2006 @ 10:49PM
That's pretty dumb. Kids have been playing, running around, falling down and (maybe) getting hurt for hundreds, thousands of years. Now we have to get political about it!?
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Brenda 10-20-2006 @ 8:30AM
Let's just strap our kids to a bed and use electic muscle stimulators to make sure that they get the optimum amount of exercise and then get a physcial therapist in once a day to work on range of motion to ensure that they never move in a way that is detrimental to optimum growth and joint development. That way they will never become injured.
While we are at it let's feed them through a tube so they receive optimum nutrition and lets make sure we heat it to a million degrees before putting it into the tube to make sure they never get any "bad" bacteria (or good for that matter).
Also if we keep them in their own self contained pods they will never be exposed to *any* germs, we can regulate the amount of sunlight and oxygen they get, purify their ait.
Seperate from their peers and family they will never be bullied, have their feelings hurt or have to worry about popularity. They will never need punishment because they will never misbehave. And we can teach them all their waking hours, and subliminally while they sleep.
Wouldn't that be great.
/sarcasm
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