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. What's next? Helmets and knee pads for hopscotch, 'cause you might fall down?
Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban. And people say that edumacation colleges don't teach their graduates a damn thing!
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. Nope, only if you were too stupid to get outta the way of the oncoming ball...
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. That was always part of the fun, Celeste....or were you one of the dorks who weren't smart enough to get out of the way of the oncoming ball when you were a kid? |