New Hampshire school district bans dodgeball for fears it encourages bullying
In the latest episode of an over-active school board making an overtly PC move, a New Hampshire school district has banned the game of dodgeball for fears that it reinforces and leads to bullying.
As reported by the Eagle Tribune and other outlets, the Windham (N.H.) School Board voted 4-1 to outlaw dodgeball and “nine other human target activities” because it was concerned that the traditional game was reinforcing the exact behaviors that the school district was aiming to eliminate in its students.
“We spend a lot of time making sure our kids are violence free,” Windham superintendent Dr. Henry LaBranche told the Eagle Tribune. “Here we have games where we use children as targets. That seems to be counter to what we are trying to accomplish with our anti-bullying campaign.”
Though dodgeball can occasionally lead to some students being targeted for their lack of agility or other physical limitations, it seems harsh to claim that the pseudo sport is a petri dish for bullying. Rather, it is a continued embodiment of the dog-eat-dog ethos that was once embodied in all school sports.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/hampshire-school-district-bans-dodgeball-fears-encourages-bullying-105525261.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
just making kids wear shorts is humiliating and needs to stop. 
just because sometimes people need to see it to believe it. 
There's always someone that comes up with a really dumb idea despite all the best intentions.
My kids aren't the most gifted athletes by any stretch but they love dodge ball. I can see keeping an eye on things to make sure nobody is going nuts but that should be standard practice for any school anyway.
I didn't think the sarcasm smilie was needed. Guess I was wrong
Smilie added. 
Are you kidding me, the violence... the humiliation...
And running, you could fall in a hole and it's boring.
Long time ago.
It was time to play dodgeball because the PE teacher was a lazy shit.
I told her that I would not participate.
(yes, I was a small kid who the big kids loved to bean because it was easy for them)
She said she would fail me if I didn't play.
Fair enough...
When the ball landed in my hands a moment later, I threw it as hard as I could... right at the teacher's head.
Her head then bounced off the bleachers in the gym, and she hit the floor.
No, that was not the right thing to do, but all the other kids were trying to do that exact same thing to me.
When she got up off the floor, she made us all line up, and said "I'm going to find out who did that, or the whole class will get detention." I didn't hesitate for a moment to say "Don't bother. It was me. And I did it on purpose."
Principal's office... suspension... school board meeting... When I explained that I wanted to "opt out" and that she wouldn't let me, I told the board that I was simply doing what I was told to do. Throw a rubber ball at other people's heads. If the teacher didn't want that to happen to her, she should have gotten the fuck out of the way. Unlike I was able to do. And yes, I used the word fuck to the school board.
They were going to expel me, and I said that I simply could not have cared less. And I'm sure that the press, (now it's referred to as "the media" would be interested in this story (my father was a newspaper editor, and they knew it).
After some consideration, they reversed my suspension, banned dodgeball, and I spent the rest of the school year jogging around the track during PE class. My parents were proud that I stood up for myself, even though they did not like the method that I chose. I was a hero among all the small kids.
Still leaves a bad taste in my mouth...
What a fantastic story. 
Now you ban dodgeball.
How the Eff are we supposed to keep the little faries in line?
(just in case there was any doubt)
I was always small and got picked on by the "jocks" all the time. Those of us who weren't particularly atheletic were the only ones they ever whipped the ball at and I ended up with serious bruises after every game. It was like they were using us as targets in a video game (and this was before video games).
Sadly, the only gym teachers I ever had laughed about it, leading me to believe they were just as big of assholes when they were in school. My parents tried talking to the principals and all they said was something like, "hey, it's just a game."
If the gym teachers would have done anything to discourage the jocks from picking on us, it might have been an enjoyable game. I dreaded it more than the inevitable wedgies in the locker room. These are the same gym teachers who would make all of us run the entire cross-country course even if we were close to death when we came straggling in, and then they would chastise us for not keeping up.
The problem isn't so much with the specific game or activity, but the mental and physical abuse those who aren't as capable suffer. Even after one of the (at the time, few) really heavy kids collapsed on on the cross-country course and had to be "found", they still didn't change anything. The EMTs had to go back along the trail to haul him out. And the teachers knew he had severe asthema. He could have died back there.
It's more of a systemic problem in the atheletic departments. The current case in Steubenville is a prime example of why we have a problem. That slap on the wrist is really going to sting, eh? How about the lifetime of horror the poor girl will have to live through?
There's nothing "PC" about the school board's move. They had the courage to actually finally do something about the problem. If the gym department teachers want those 9 human target activities back, they need to prove they can act like the adults they are supposed to be, not one of the offenders.
Posting in a forum is not the best way to communicate.
Actually, I don't favor the banning of dodgeball; but it should be voluntary and optional.
I'm opposed to nonathletic students being forced to participate in any sport in mandatory P.E. classes. This sort of arrangement definitely does encourage bullying by setting the athletic boys against the ones who aren't athletically inclined. If anyone doubts that bullying has been a problem in sports-centered mandatory P.E., all one has to do is make a search on this site alone on "phys ed bullying," "p.e. bullying," and "jock bullying" -- not to mention making a Google search across the Internet. Yes, some school districts have better programs than the ones I had to endure when I was a boy in the 1960's; but I suspect the "old P.E." is still the painful reality in many districts. Next to no one has ever shown any concern about the problems nonathletic boys have faced in traditional mandatory P.E. That includes most of the people today who demand that P.E. be mandatory K through 12. What's particularly galling is that nonathletic boys really don't get any exercise in such P.E. classes. I certainly never did. I wasn't even taught about the sports themselves! Any teacher of an academic class who "taught" that way would be fired, but not P.E. coaches!
Since the summer of 2007, I've been a physically active guy -- no thanks to the mandatory P.E. of my youth, not to mention bigoted P.E. teachers and coaches who (because of their machismo mindset) viewed nonathletic boys with either indifference or outright contempt. I've spent a small fortune hiring personal trainers to work with me on a bodybuilding program at a local health club with great results that never were possible in any of my P.E. classes. So, I know what works and what doesn't work for nonathletic boys. (Hint: There must be choice.)
Thank you for being civil.
And sadly as usual the bully apologist authoritarians dominate the Yahoo comments section. 
I remember dodgeball when I was a kid. Why are schools taking all the fun away in the name of combating bullying? There are more effective ways to combat bullying.
