Grade School Bans Playing Tag

[jwmorrice]

This is farking pathetic! When will the Toronto School Board follow suit???

jwm

Massachusetts grade school bans tag
Oct. 18, 2006. 10:23 AM

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) - 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.

 

[LancsLad]

Wimps, kids are supposed to play at recess, getting hurt is part of the game. Guess they won't allow British Bulldog then.

 

[Doctor Zoidburg]

The dangers of playing tag.

When I was a young lad, I played tag with a little girl in school and I had to chase her to tag her. I reached over and tagged her right on her 12 year old budding breast and froze. There we were, my hand on her little breast. Both of us motionless and stunned for what seemed like an eternity! After a while, she raised her 2 little hands and started to pound on me in an exagerated mock beating. With my hands raise to defend myself, I looked up and saw the look on her face. I said to her: "Hey!, if your going to beat on me at least you can stop smiling""

 

[burlboy]

The only thing that surprised me was that they didn't make helmets manditory during recess. Social engineering at it's best.

 

[Questor]

Massachusetts grade school bans tag
Oct. 18, 2006. 10:23 AM

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) - 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.

Yes, it is a shame that it has come to this point.

This is farking pathetic! When will the Toronto School Board follow suit???

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

Oh dear god, not a near collision?! Well it is parents like this that have put a stop to unsupervised play. Americans are considerably more litigious than Canadians. Hopefully in Canada we will never go so far as to ban unsupervised play to avoid law suits.

If a parent doesn't want a kid playing a game where there could potentially be a collision, then he/she should instruct their kid not to play. Why should all kids suffer because of a few crackpots?

 

[Diode]

As said in an earlier post. People have become wimpy.
They have NO sense of adventure, either at school or at work.
Its really quite boring.

 

[Jade4u]

Ridiculous, what's next.

 

[basketcase]

Keep the kids locked in small cages and just force feed them. They do it with veal and veal tastes great!

 

[incognito]

Today for recess...we are just going to stand outside. In fact, we'll put you in a buggy and wheel you out so you won't hit the door on the way out. I think charlie brown said it best...oh good grief.

 

[Asterix]

We're raising a generation of overweight hothouse plants.

 

[scouser1]

they have banned the pop and the junk food machines well at least in the two TO boards they have

 

[Jade4u]

How many changes has there been to the school system since you were in school?

It seems the teachers no longer even stay in the classroom anymore while children have thier lunches. They used to when I went to school. They no longer supervise the school yards at recess they used to take turns doing this when I was in grade school.

There used to be a school nurse in my school when I was in grade school. If the problem was minor they used to keep the students there and they only left if it was considered more serious. Even my principal in public school used to be her own secretary. School days used to start of with O'Canada followed by a morning prayer. Christmas concerts used to really reflect our Christmas and words were not removed from songs like God or Jesus. Not that I have a problem multiculturalism is great but this is also a change to our school system. It just seems to me there is too many changes less work for them overall and when I was in grade six my classroom did have 38 students.

The teachers mixed and mingled with us students at recess seemed to care more did more work and accepted responsibilities. Now it seems they want more volunteers, less risk, less responsibilites and will give detentions out more easily to students even for the smallest of things, you believe even in kindergarten??? A child gets to grade one I am sure they will be happier to stay home. This will really teach them to stay in thier seats and not to talk. Maybe they expect parents to yell at thier kids all day. But it is one less child for them to teach the rules of the school and get them used to the system for awhile. Now they are afraid of a game of tag. Will a child now get suspended for running a characteristic of a normal child or will the child be labelled not normal in the future?

What problems have you experienced with the school system that you felt really unjust and morally wrong?

 

[Incall]

actually in york region there is one or more teachers in the school yard at all times. Lunch has parents watching them. That is ok because even teachers need to eat at lunch. Over all elementary schools are not bad. High school of course play by different rules. They have also got rid of junk vending machines. Its up to the parents now.

 

[scouser1]

It seems the teachers no longer even stay in the classroom anymore while children have thier lunches. They used to when I went to school. They no longer supervise the school yards at recess they used to take turns doing this when I was in grade school.

There used to be a school nurse in my school when I was in grade school. If the problem was minor they used to keep the students there and they only left if it was considered more serious. Even my principal in public school used to be her own secretary. School days used to start of with O'Canada followed by a morning prayer. Christmas concerts used to really reflect our Christmas and words were not removed from songs like God or Jesus. Not that I have a problem multiculturalism is great but this is also a change to our school system. It just seems to me there is too many changes less work for them overall and when I was in grade six my classroom did have 38 students.

The teachers mixed and mingled with us students at recess seemed to care more did more work and accepted responsibilities. Now it seems they want more volunteers, less risk, less responsibilites and will give detentions out more easily to students even for the smallest of things, you believe even in kindergarten??? A child gets to grade one I am sure they will be happier to stay home. This will really teach them to stay in thier seats and not to talk. Maybe they expect parents to yell at thier kids all day. But it is one less child for them to teach the rules of the school and get them used to the system for awhile. Now they are afraid of a game of tag. Will a child now get suspended for running a characteristic of a normal child or will the child be labelled not normal in the future?

What problems have you experienced with the school system that you felt really unjust and morally wrong?

I dont know which school board you are talking about but I can assure you all the ones I know have teachers out there for recess, they are the ones solely responsible for the safety of the children/

 

[LancsLad]

Totally agree.

British Bulldog should be in the Olympics!

It was a really great way to get a broken arm or a headbutt or sprained wrist. You were outside having fun and getting exercise not staring at a computer screen.

 

[Jade4u]

Well the way it works here is first in the morning there is 3 teachers on the yard so children should not show to school before a certain time and then they have parent volunteers come in for the other recesses as the school yard is too large sometimes you will see a teacher on the property sometimes not the other parent volunteers that guard areas of the school grounds are given those orange thingys to wear so that the students know who they are and the funny thing is most of the time you only see them talking with each other. I have seen them assist children that have gotten hurt into the school if this volunteer becomes busy after that the office will call a teacher out on the grounds to help.

 

[Asterix]

It was a really great way to get a broken arm or a headbutt or sprained wrist. You were outside having fun and getting exercise not staring at a computer screen.

Different worlds. When I was a kid we couldn't wait to get home from school to play basketball, street hockey, football in the field back of the neighborhood, whatever, and all until it got so dark we couldn't see the ball anymore. Kids are different now, as I sit here typing this staring at my computer screen.

 

[LancsLad]

Different worlds. When I was a kid we couldn't wait to get home from school to play basketball, street hockey, football in the field back of the neighborhood, whatever, and all until it got so dark we couldn't see the ball anymore. Kids are different now, as I sit here typing this staring at my computer screen.

My son never knew the joy of winter and spring street hockey. Nothing stings quite as hard as a slapshot to the face with an icy tennis ball. Damn I can still feel the sting thinking about it.

 

[Jade4u]

Just wondering what the cause of all this is, is this because parents are more likely to sue at every little possibility these days than what they used to be?

 

[LancsLad]

Just wondering what the cause of all this is, is this because parents are more likely to sue at every little possibility these days than what they used to be?

Its more political correctness at work. The schoolyard can be a tough place ( even without guns and knives) but thats how kids learned to deal with things. Remember how a big fight would start, after a few punches and after the first blood, that was it fight over , winner declared.

Kids are not allowed to pick on each other anymore and the system tries to tell them that we are all the same so get along. Thing is thats not the real world.