School bans tag

Thanks to the sue-happy people of America and the laws that reward personal irrisponsibility, we now have this:

Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

From www.cnn.com...

It's not the school's fault. They just don't want to get sued.
Reminds me of how some old friends were out of state, a kid climbed the fence to go in their backyard and play on the playground equipment... the kid broke his arm and his parents sued (and won). Bloody ridiculous!

Why I should be declared God, to keep this bs from happening. Like your friends case, the kid would be humiliated by having his baby pictures put up everywhere and then his parents would be humiliated for well, this.

"These parents are suing someone because their kid tresspassed onto someone elses property and hurt himself. That's right, these people think that their kid is soooooo special he can commit crimes then profit from them. So, what happens when you kid steals a car then crashes it, are you going to sue the owners of the car to? Remember these people, they live at (insert addres). Go to their house and hurt yourself then sue them for millions because that's how they believe things work."

And for tag and football, do a contract or whatever that says "If your Child is injured due to normal playground activities The State/County/WHoever are not responsible." SO unless a teacher runs them over because he is drunk the school will not be sued.

Also see the comments posted in this later thread (now closed): www.abovetopsecret.com...
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Another Willett parent, Celeste D'Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. "I've witnessed enough near collisions," she said.

Near collisions???

I see it already... "Today two 65 pound grade school children suffered critical injuries in a collision while playing tag."

And when they're at home they imitate the WWE. Tag or touch football is nothing compared to that.

Ridiculous.

They are just shifting the problem to another place. Kids are full of energy, and if they can't burn off some of it on the playground, it's gonna come out somewhere. Maybe in the classroom or on the schoolbus.

When I went to elementary school, before the US became insane, I went to school barefoot, carried pocket knives to school, used the swing set to launch myself high into the air to land in the grass, dug caves in large gullies behind the school, played football, baseball, tag, dodge-ball, set fires in the dry leaves with magnifying glasses, got into fistfights, got stabbed in the toe playing mumbletypeg and on and on with hardly any playground supervision, no fatal injuries and not a single lawsuit.

Playing tag, or flag football, or whatever is how children learn to interact with their peers...how the hell else are they supposed to do it? Playing video games over the internet, or however its done?

Grady. Ahh...for the good ole days, eh? I did those things too, and I'm younger than you are...when did these things become bad?

This is just the latest in the ridiculously sublime moves intended to sissify our youth. Here's another example:

Increasingly, Schools Move To Restrict Dodgeball

This is utterly rediculous. Next thing you know these kids are going to have so much energy built up they are going to be flipping out in the classroom. That leads to some more OMG my kid has ADHD let's give him meds!! When all the kid really needed was a little outdoor time.

I saw on TV last night that one of the best reasons to get rid of tag was because of the kids who were "it" and could never tag anyone else. They said it led to crippling emotional problems and scars nobody could ever see. Any thoughts?

Originally posted by YoBrandonRaps
I saw on TV last night that one of the best reasons to get rid of tag was because of the kids who were "it" and could never tag anyone else. They said it led to crippling emotional problems and scars nobody could ever see. Any thoughts?

I think the same excuse was used for not keeping score in kids soccer and baseball games.

They're being set up for failure, imo.

As the lack of physical activities in schools become the norm, the nerds might finally take over.

Originally posted by Kruel
It's not the school's fault. They just don't want to get sued.

Reminds me of how some old friends were out of state, a kid climbed the fence to go in their backyard and play on the playground equipment... the kid broke his arm and his parents sued (and won). Bloody ridiculous!

Schools can definitely be strange sometimes. This reminds me of grade school with my sister who is a paraplegic from birth ... first they wanted to put her into special education because she couldn't walk. They argued that the special ed class had facilities for disabled kids and the other classrooms didn't. My mom argued the main classrooms had EDUCATION (relevant to a normal minded person) and the special ed classes were humiliating and demeaning to her.

Once she was in the mainstream classrooms she easliy made many friends and excelled at her school work. About halfway through the school year we found out she wasn't being allowed to participate in recess. She was allowed to go outside by had to sit on the sidelines the entire time. The principals reasons were that "she might get hurt" ... my mom retaliated that she was amazed that he ran a school where no kids every got hurt on the playground during recess; And she proceeded to send my sister to school with a note everday that said verbatim " has my permission to be injured while playing during recess today".

The principal, found it less than amusing but it empowered my sister to realize she was allowed to participate and he couldn't stop her. She had a right to participate in the recess play and bond with friends and not sit by herself like an outcast. The last straw was the principal made a CPS referral based on the letter, he said he felt it was neglect to allow her to get injured since she was disabled. It went nowhere but they still had to come over and do a cursory investigation.

I apologize since this wasn't quite on topic but it made me think of this family situation from years ago. Schools sometimes worry about liability (for obvious reasons) but forget about the bigger picture involved. I think playing tag is harmless (usually), yes kids will get hurt ... but they'll still get hurt whether they play that particular game or just hang upside down from some playground equipment. We should take reasonable protections to protect our children from injuries but where do we draw the line? Kids run, kids fall, kids get hurt ... unless they're playing dodge the concrete rock I don't think the school should be liable.

It's unfortunate people have successfully sued school districts/businesses/you name it over typical, everday happenstance. This just encourages the mentality that if I get hurt or something bad happens to me there must be somebody who can be held accountable ... sometimes shtuff happens ... deal with it.

I think that post was very relevant and it illustrates very well how idiotic the school systems have become. The principal should have been fired for making that frivolous CPS referral, since he knew full well what the circumstances were and the intent of the note. I would think that a lawsuit against the school board would help to put his priorities in order.

Originally posted by GradyPhilpott
I think that post was very relevant and it illustrates very well how idiotic the school systems have become. The principal should have been fired for making that frivolous CPS referral, since he knew full well what the circumstances were and the intent of the note. I would think that a lawsuit against the school board would help to put his priorities in order.

There was no lawsuit ... we moved several times during our raising from the east coast to the west coast and my poor mom had to fight the fight at almost every school district she enrolled in to keep her out of special ed ... so she was just happy that she was being treated like any other 3rd grader in the school. The final "justice" was that the other disabled kids at that particular school, all of whom were in special ed regardless of their mental capabilites, saw her out there, playing and having fun with the other kids, and by the next year most of their parents had demanded they be allowed to play as well. There was some nice media coverage of the entire incident and the school district had some egg on its face, they came out against that principal ( of course). Alls well that ends well.

I don't have the energy to... this is ridiculous.

Can you say safety is the problem?

I can see it now, I mean do we want to live in a future where our grandchildren will wear helmets to walk to the bus stop? Do you want to live in a future where all arguements will be settled when someone snitces? I Don't, I don't want to live in a nation of Overweight, Soft, Irrisponsible people, On Medication. What happened to the beatings? (not the abusing ones, buts thats how it started) What ever happened to be beign responsible for your actions, and what happened to good ol' pains and hardships that taught us to push on and not give up? And of course you cannot prove your manhood nowdays without beign arrested, and go on say that fighting is uneccesary, and I'll show you a history book.

Anyhow... What is going on and where is this safety getting us?

Nowhere, all this is doing is simply and completely telling natural selection to *&@% off. And no, I'm not off topic, everything comes back saefty on this issue.

Thanks for hearing me out?

Smallmindsbigideas.

your posts were extremely relevant. Physically challenged (one of the few PC terms I find at all tolerable) does in no way equate to handicapped...especially as it seems to relate to your sister. Challenged yes, handicapped no. I am so glad your mother fought that fight, and that it inspired others to do the same.

It surprises me not at all, that the school board in order to cover its collective butt would throw the principal under the bus. It was probably board policy that the principal was attempting to enforce...

Glad to see everything worked out for the best. None of my business, but I am curious, how's your sister doing?