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Jill Patir: Hug Your Loved Ones a Little Tighter
Playground Slide So Dangerous It Has a Security Guard
Filed under: Opinions
There are many adults who believe that today's kids are being ruined by a society striving to protect them from every conceivable danger. In the name of safety, schools have banned tag, cartwheels, and butter knives. Parents hover over their children like helicopters, ready to intervene at the first sign of a potential boo-boo. Because so much of what passes for protection seems to be veering into the territory of nonsense, I was a little skeptical when I read about a playground slide that is so dangerous it needs a twenty-four hour security guard.But then I got a look at the slide in question. It is the mother of all playground slides, so tall and fast that several children have been seriously injured playing on it. The children who suffered injuries were all under 4 feet tall, so the developer of the neighborhood where the playground is located decided to impose a minimum height requirement for the slide.
Of course, with nobody around to enforce that rule, what's to prevent a small but brave kid from giving it a go? That's where the security guard comes in.
Day and night, a guard watches over the slide, ostensibly to make sure kids who ride the slide are tall enough. But little kids reportedly continue to use the slide -- despite the presence of the guard.
I found myself wondering why a developer would even install a slide so dangerous. While the builder did make sure the equipment complied with standards, they don't address lengths and gradient ratios. In other words, this really tall, really steep slide probably belongs in a fully-staffed amusement park.
It definitely looks like fun, but would you allow your children on this slide -- even with a guard?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-30-2009 @ 12:16PM
ttupper said...Our kids are being ruined by our society trying to protect them from every possible danger. I mean really how the heck did the human species survive and make it this far? How did we come to this? The way we try to put our children in little plastic bubbles is utter nonsense.
Concerning the slide: If it really is the “mother of all slides” and not the normal every day slide then I can see the need for security. Especially if there has been an excessive amount of injuries.
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1-30-2009 @ 12:44PM
Pavlina said...That is a cool slide. I recall slides like that (well not exactly like that, but still big, tall and long) when I was a kid. Also we had all kinds of 'dangerous" playground equipment. I daresay, I was "seriously" injured while playing as a kid. Talk about scars I still have on my body to this day, a broken leg, numerous knots on the head, etc. The slide is completely enclosed, so it isn't like the kids can fall out or anything.
1-30-2009 @ 9:11PM
MellissaD said...Shouldn't the parents of these children be supervising anyway???!
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10-23-2010 @ 9:45AM
Momof2 said...they need to put down some thick foam like matts like most playgrounds have at the end of slides and under swings, then top it off with lots of mulch. If it is still to hard of a hit when they land then the city should remove the frickin thing ! Heck of alot cheaper to remove it then to pay someone to guard it 24/7 that is just insane. I can not believe that this has not come up at a town hall meetng....the extreme waste of the tax payers money !!
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