The act(s) of being a kid banned in MA schools!

[Elgin Clock]

Not it! Mass. elementary school bans tag

Funny thing since I heard that MA was the second smartest state in the country based on a recent survey being discussed on the radio this morning.
(CT was 3rd - w00t!)
(Every state in New England made it in the top 10 but NH - home of FIRST - )

I'm thinkin' MA will drop a few spots in that study next year because of this act of stupidity.
Yes, I call it stupidity and not an act of safety.
I guess MA want to "baby" their kids so they are even less prepared for the real world than kids already are coming out of school.

Thoughts?

[Allison K]

It seems to be more an issue of lawyer-happy parents that it does safety of the children. And they wonder why childhood obesity is on the rise

Kids got hurt all the time during Recess in my elementary and middle school (Yes, we had recess through eighth grade). I don't think the thought ever crossed anybody's mind to hold the school responsible.

I wonder how this will affect the students in the classroom. Being outside and active (running and playing) releases chemicals in the brain that help with the ability to focus and storage knwoledge (among other things). Though the article says the school "outlawed all unsupervised contact sports." I would think recess would be considered supervised.

~Allison

[KenWittlief]

So now what? Tag goes underground?

Pssssst! hey kid, yeah you! Wanna get in on some tag action? Tonight, other side of the rail yard - 8pm - Five bucks!

an even bigger issue - what happens to the kid who was It when tag was banned? Does he now have to live with the stigma of being It for the rest of his life?!

[Dan Petrovic]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

an even bigger issue - what happens to the kid who was It when tag was banned? Does he now have to live with the stigma of being It for the rest of his life?!

He will fall into a deep depression and OD's on drugs of all shapes and sizes.

So now... they are going to ban recess, because there is the possibility of someone getting hurt. All rooms will be padded because anything can happen and a child can trip and hit their heads on the desk?

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

He will fall into a deep depression and OD's on drugs of all shapes and sizes.

So now... they are going to ban recess, because there is the possibility of someone getting hurt. All rooms will be padded because anything can happen and a child can trip and hit their heads on the desk?

Of the only 2 times (surprisingly) I have gotten injured requiring stitches (knock on wood) neither time was at school. They were both during incidents over the summer. (And no, I'm not gonna even attempt to say let's ban summer recess to prevent injuries to kids). I wouldn't wish upon a lack of summer recess for any kid.

I say if you want to prevent injury to people, ban life itself....

Alas, most of my injuries in school were emotional scars from being teased or made fun of for different things like having red hair or being the slightly odd one out.
I still am the odd one out most of the time, but who cares anymore?
Not to say I never got injured at school, but those mostly minor injuries were mainly from other kids being bullies, and not playing tag or falling on the playground or what not.

The failed attempts to slide on and falling in the half-frozen-but-not-quite-yet-completely-frozen mud "puddles" were of my own doing though...

[petek]

Originally Posted by Allison K

I wonder how this will affect the students in the classroom. Being outside and active (running and playing) releases chemicals in the brain that help with the ability to focus and storage knwoledge (among other things).~Allison

Absolutely. I wonder how the teachers at that school feel about it? I'd expect to see a lot of kids acting out or daydreaming in class.

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that the parents and/or administrators behind this didn't read this article, either.

[Jeremiah Johnson]

Wow... I never broke a bone* during school activities... all 5 times were far from school grounds. Tag was fun... does anyone remember Red Rover?


Off-Topic-Ish
*I did completely tear my MCL during football practice, there was also no treatment procedure by doctors and I was healed and back playing in two weeks. I'm a weaker version of Wolverine I suppose. Broke my had 3 weeks ago, realigned the bones myself and it's almost completely healed now, didn't see a doctor.

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by InfernoX14

He will fall into a deep depression and OD's on drugs of all shapes and sizes.

So now... they are going to ban recess, because there is the possibility of someone getting hurt. All rooms will be padded because anything can happen and a child can trip and hit their heads on the desk?

Well, I dunno...maybe desks should be outlawed. It really puts the children at risk. Because, you know, everything is for the children. With the probability of a kid hitting there heading being 1 to 75730395723, I don't think that's a risk they would want to take, keeping those desks there.

And about those pencils...Mmm...they *do* have really sharp points. Perhaps kids should write with chalk now? Oh...but that could lead to allergic reactions due to the dust. Maybe they could just have it injected into their brains somehow? Maybe if the kids just lie down on their books the information could diffuse into their brains?

I mean, how dare these schools put them at risk!

I remember in second grade a kid basically put his head down into a bucket of pencils that had their points facing up. And what did his parents do? They asked him if he was okay...then laughed about it.

Stupid lawyer/lawsuit-happy parents ruining the fun for everyone...

[Andrew Blair]

Dogdeball was removed from our school in it's entirety a few years ago. That ticked me off...

The problem is, Americans are sue-happy. Not all, but, the cliche holds true, and schools counter to avoid risk. In other communities, westerly and in more remote regions, this isn't nearly as much of a problem. Life in general is riskier, and parents are willing to take a bit more risk as their own responsibility.

Unfortunately, especially in the NE, parents believe that when they send their kids away in the glistening cheese that first day of school, that they have, for aeven a short time, relinquished all control and responsibility for them. Whoohoo! Tax dollars doing something useful for once! However, as responsible adults know, this simply isn't the case. There are some legitimate reasons to sue a school district, but far too aften it's about pointing fingers, feel good vindication, and even cash.

Ex: My brother in elementary school was running up a pipe ladder in a school playground during recess, slipped, bashed his face in, and had to go to the emergency room for stitches, concussion test, etc. Could've claimed negligence, or other things, but thats absurd.

More serious... My friend has a brother that is seizure prone. He was playing on pull up bars, also during recess, fell off, on his head, began seizing. Negligence, imprper equipment, etc., but again, a frivilous lawsuit.

At a local elementary school, kids in my grade tell stories about how cool it was to go back and play at the "pit". Which happened to be a waste dumping area, complete with rusting barrels. Parents found out, but they didn't sue the school, they just took responsiblity and told their kids not to play there anymore!


Everyone knows a million examples of instances where there is an opportunity for a liability suit, but isn't action on it. It's the few, absurd people who feel the need to be an arse and sue for little reason. Districts need to cover their backsides, and the culture seems to permit this behavior.
* Sorry, that was an exceptionally long rant...

[Alexa Stott]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Parents found out, but they didn't sue the school, they just took responsiblity and told their kids not to play there anymore!

Exactly. Parents aren't doing their jobs. If I did something wrong or stupid that ended in me getting injured, no matter how minor, my parents would say to me, "Well, then...don't do it again!" Now, parents don't do that. Half the reason there are such restrictions on content shown on television is due to the fact that parents don't even bother to monitor what their kids are watching, resulting in tons of censorship.

Also, this prevents kids from learning from experience. Well, like Elgin, if you slide in those half-frozen mud puddles and get dirty and wet and disgusting, you know not to do it. But oh no! They're not allowed outside when there are puddles! They could slip on it!

I nearly got detention in elementary school for not wearing a jacket to school on a day they thought I should have been! Kids are so sheltered and babyed (babied?) these days.

I say...LET THEM PLAY TAG!

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by Budda648

... Broke my had 3 weeks ago, realigned the bones myself ...

this explains a lot! I'll bet you had an aweful HadAche for a while.

The most serious injury Ive suffered was falling and breaking my collar bone, on my neighbors concrete stair, when I was 5. My older sister was chasing me, I guess you could say we were playing tag in a way.

She was trying to tag me with a screwdriver.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

an even bigger issue - what happens to the kid who was It when tag was banned? Does he now have to live with the stigma of being It for the rest of his life?!

I wouldn't worry about the kids, they are very resourceful and will develop some form of "no contact" tag.

My Brother-in-law and his siblings used to play "eyeball tag" at the dinner table. Basically, when you make eye contact with someone, you give them a quick nod of your head and that person is "It". Usually the tagger would quickly tip their head down after the "tag" so they were staring directly into their dinner plate. It took the parents a while to notice that the children were unusually focused on their dinner that evening. But once they realized the game was ongoing, they'd immediately stop it.

So, if you see all the kids in MA walking around during recess staring at the ground, you'll know they've adapted.

(Luckily, my sister is crazy too, so she doesn't get upset when we come to visit and start a game over dinner.)

[Jay H 237]

They better hurry up and ban lunch at school before some kid chokes to death!


I would never have guessed that back in the 80s when I was in elementary school that they would be banning certain games or even getting rid of the playground equipment. Back then you would fall off the equipment, get up, brush the mulch or sand off, climb back on, and maybe have a nice bruise later on.

Today the only place to learn about gravity is the science room, not falling off the monkey bars like in the past.


(Note to self: don't have kids in Massachusetts)

[Simon Strauss]

I definitely should not be old enough to remember the "Good Ole days" when tag was legal.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Simon Strauss

I definitely should not be old enough to remember the "Good Ole days" when tag was legal.

boy howdy -

freeze tag is the best