Remember the days of playing “red rover,” “tag,” and “kick the can” at school during recess? Maybe there was an occasional scraped knee/elbow from falling down while running or sore hands after a particularly energetic game of red rover - but I never knew of anyone getting injured any more seriously than that.

I noticed this article in my daily news reading. Lawsuits and the fear of injury are causing some changes in elementary schools.

Not It! Elementary School Bans Tag

AP, ATTLEBORO, Mass. (Oct. 18) - Tag, you’re out!

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.

Recess is “a time when accidents can happen,” said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

While there is no districtwide ban on contact sports during recess, local rules have been cropping up. Several school administrators around Attleboro, a city of about 45,000 residents, took aim at dodgeball a few years ago, saying it was exclusionary and dangerous.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, S.C., school outlawed all unsupervised contact sports.

“I think that it’s unfortunate that kids’ lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they’ll never develop on their own,” said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. “Playing tag is just part of being a kid.”

Another Willett parent, Celeste D’Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. “I’ve witnessed enough near collisions,” she said.

No matter HOW many games are banned or how many people we have supervising recess, there will always be accidents. The meaning of the word “accident” is that it’s something that was not intended or planned. Accidents happen. Children can be hurt walking on even, grass-covered ground wearing athletic shoes (sandals and slip-on shoes are already banned at many schools). You could put kids in a padded room with absolutely nothing that could harm them, and an accident could happen. I’m sure somewhere sometime there has been a child who was injured while praying in church or lying innocently in bed. In other words, you can’t protect children 100%. So, let’s not forbid children from playing games just because there is a possibility that someone MIGHT get hurt.

Instead, how about teaching children to play safely. Teach them to watch out for each other. Teach them that if they fall and scrape their knees, it’s not necessary to place blame on someone or something. Teach them that accidents happen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 19th, 2006 at 6:10 am and is filed under Headlines/Current Events, Teaching/Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.