Boston Elementary School Bans Playing 'Tag' At Recess...

[BlooInBloo]

My god. What a bunch of whiny ass titty babies American have become.

"Officials at the Willett Elementary School in Attleboro have banned playground tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chasing games over concerns about the risk of injury and liability for the school."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/10/18/attleboro_elementary_school_bans_tag/

[rubberducky]

1. My grandson ,here in MI, told me about the ........

tag ban at his school last week end! Stupid, huh!!!

[endarkenment]

2. Why not lock everyone up at age 6?

That way we can all be supervised 24/7 and kept safe.

[peace13]

3. This is so funny

you can choke on Twinkies but do they ban those? NO!God forbid these kids run around and get the endorphins running. They may actually turn into something other than a couch potato. Sorry for the rant. Peace on earth, Kim

[MrCoffee]

4. "titty babies"...

:popcorn:

[BlooInBloo]

7. Eat as much popcorn as you like - it's a standard term in the blogosphere.

[MrCoffee]

9. "blogosphere"

:puke:

[MissB]

5. Another vote for stupid.

With enough supervision, it shouldn't really be an issue.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Supervision is a personnel issue

With NCLB and its unfunded mandates, as well as cuts in funding, playground aides are long gone. In my district, we have no cafeteria aides this year. Can't afford them anymore.

It is hard for one teacher to supervise 20+ kids running all over a playground.

[MissB]

31. Yep.

We rely on volunteers, which we have plenty of. I suppose that is why we still have tag.

[Huskerchub]

34. Strange...

When I was in grade school 30 years ago, we had 2 classes of 18-25 students and only ONE teacher on the playground (while the other teacher used recess as a planning period) and we all lived. I'm not sure that things have changed all that much. Yes the kids are much bigger, whinner, spoiled BRATS, just like most of their parents but one or two adults should be enough to make sure that no one is killed playing a game of tag!

This reminds me of something that happened yesterday. A friend brought her 2 week old over for some of us to meet for the first time. She went balistic when some reached toward the baby and had not sanitized their hands first. Give me a friggin break! Is it any wonder that children are constantly sick? They can't even begin to build an immune sysem becuse they can't be touched by unsanitized hands. When one of the women whipped out a packet of Wet Wipes to clean her hands she was told "those are NOT acceptible, they do not kill germs." The last laugh was on new mommy as said woman tossed the package at mommy and said "huh, says right here 'Kills 99% of all germs'".

End of rant

[vixengrl]

41. This reminds me of child-rearing some fifty years ago--

(no, not that I remember it, this is my Grandmother's story). She was babysitting for the lady across the street (my grandmother was an obstetric nurse before having my aunt, uncle, and my father, and once they were school-age, she went back, in between, she watched babies--it was what she was very good at.) The woman had one complaint about her methods, "But dam' Helen, you can't expect such cleanliness from the children, they won't know a germ if it bit'em."

See, a little dirt was *good* for the kids--it let them get over their childhood diseases and toughened'em up. I caught rubella, chickenpox, and all that by the time I was seven--and am hardly sickly as an adult. (My mom is also a nurse, and took everything from rashes to puke in stride.) I also had my playground fights, bruises, scratches, and all that, and learned how to deal with it. I see so many of my generation's younsters being bubblewrapped and sanitized, and wonder how they'll do. It's hard to look after sick kids, but they *do* get over it. Do they get over coddling?

[proud2BlibKansan]

43. Kids really have changed

When I first started teaching almost 30 years ago, I supervised 50 - 75 kids at recess every day all by myself. We rarely had problems. I remember one day when I sent my class out to recess when another teacher was on duty. 15 minutes later, I went outside to bring my class in and there was no adult on the playground! The teacher was absent that day, there was no sub and no one had told us she wouldn't be at her recess duty. My kids plus another class were out there playing all by themselves and doing just fine. No way would that work out so well today.

I am not sure what it is but the kids are more rowdy, they don't play together as well as they used to and they need more supervision than they used to. Maybe because we don't give them as much time to play as we used to. Maybe it is because more mothers are working and kids don't get as much attention at home. Maybe it is that they are exposed to more violence on TV, etc. Maybe because they are less likely to play outside at home. I honestly don't know but kids really are more likely to fight and play rough than they used to be.

I hear you on that hand sanitizer deal. It has become a magic elixir. And to think of all the generations of babies that survived without it! :)

[femmocrat]

38. Twenty-plus would be easy!

We have four classrooms out at a time with two teachers on duty.... that's about 100 kids running every which way! We never had playground aides!

[proud2BlibKansan]

46. We are each on our own now

If you want your class to have recess, you take them out yourself. No more shared recesses because we have had too many problems.

[seabeyond]

6. how about parents suing causing school to stop it. nothing to do

with the kids..... leave em alone, wink

fortunately seems mostly in the blue states. my state still has winner losers, red marking pens and dodge ball

[BlooInBloo]

11. Dodgeball the game = wonderful. Dogdeball the movie = stupid. :)

[seabeyond]

17. dodgeball the movie=no one in my family watchin that movie, lol n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Old news

I haven't taught at a school in at least 20 years that allowed tag at recess. It is district policy where I work.

You can thank parents who threaten to file frivolous lawsuits.

[BlooInBloo]

13. Wow. Amazing that it made the newspaper, being 20 yo std policy.

[proud2BlibKansan]

21. I don't know that the policy is that old in Boston

But I would suspect they haven't played tag in awhile.

On edit - just saw this story on my local news. The principal at this school in Boston said this has been a policy "for years". Hmmm. Sounds like someone's mom has a media connection.

[Kerrytravelers]

10. Our district had to ban tag and other similar games because

some children were simply getting way out of control. They became physically aggressive, physically intimidating and initiating violence before recess against other children. When the parents were called regarding their children's rough behavior, they basically blew us off. We restricted the kids from playing, but then it became a whole thing of which kids are banned and the parents getting extremely irate that their children couldn't play (even though they'd blown us off earlier.) In the name of simplicity, we simply said no tag, no touch football. With the budget cuts, we are extremely short on staff and don't have enough adults to monitor so many children.

Does it suck? Yes. But having been on the other side, sometimes, it's the only way to deal with the issue given the situation you are in.

[proud2BlibKansan]

22. WTF is this all about?

This story is just now being aired on my local news. Why is this a new story? Where were all these outraged people when kids were beating up on each other while playing tag?

[KAZ]

24. Because LIBERALS BAN TAG!

Conservatives play Dodge Ball. You don't think this simple meme sticks with the Survivor watchers? I'm going to get a half dozen emails on this tomorrow.

Edit: They'll bring this out as long as it works, regardless of timeliness.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. I would love it if

every single person on this thread who is complaining about this makes a promise not to call the school and complain when their child gets hurt at school. That's the only way to stop this nonsense.

It's really frustrating. Schools do silly things like ban tag because parents complain. Then they complain when tag is banned. Can't have it both ways.

[bluedogyellowdog]

12. And they wonder why we have an obesity epidemic in this country.

Sheesh.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. Blame the electorate.

If you pass laws that allow people to win massive damages for frivolous lawsuits, you are going to get lots of people banning things needlessly to cover their asses against being sued. It's a shame, but I can certainly see why the school might feel they have to do it.

[BlooInBloo]

15. As long as it's understood that malpractice suits are rarely...

... frivolous, I'm with ya.

Especially on the "blame the electorate" bit.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. You would be amazed by how many policies schools have

because a parent complained. Anymore, they don't even have to threaten a lawsuit. Just being angry is enough.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Glad you understand

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. Two words: Fucking. Stupid.

I swear are people trying to ensure that all kids grow up into a bunch of stupid fat prissy adults?

[BlooInBloo]

18. Don't forget "stupid".

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

19. Fixed.

[BlooInBloo]

20. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. If you have a kid who comes home with bruises

from playing tag at recess, you would most likely be upset. Then if you called the school to complain, the first thing the principal would do after hanging up the phone would be to BAN TAG AT RECESS.

Sorry but that's how it works nowadays. Yes, it sucks.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

32. If the game is getting violent enough that kids are getting bruises

then one really needs to see why the teachers & staff aren't properly supervising the students.

And I wouldn't call the school. If I had a kid, I'd raise them the same way I was raised and that's to defend myself.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. Good for you

As for the supervision, it is very hard for one teacher to supervise a playground full of kids. When I take kids out for recess, they play an organized game. I don't let them run all over the playground doing whatever they want. And no, they can't play tag. :)

[slackmaster]

28. No child should suffer the stigma of being labelled "It"

:crazy:

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. That's not the problem

It's the injuries the kid gets from falling down after being tagged.

[MissB]

33. And I've learned recently how expensive liability insurance

is for a school district each year. It is a huge expense.

[High Plains]

36. Somehow we survived skinned knees and elbows back in my day.

I sympthatize with the school districts, but gee whiz...why not let kids be kids?

[slackmaster]

37. Yes, in my day as well

I can't recall anyone being seriously injured in a game of tag.

Or even Prisoner Dodge.

[BlooInBloo]

45. And finally everyone catches up to what I initially said:

whiny ass titty babies.

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. I hear ya

[BlooInBloo]

44. ROFLMAO!!!! That's a good one - I'll have to remember that one!

[Odin2005]

35. This is rediculous, we are raising kids to be a bunch of wusses.

They banned dodgeball because it is "exlusionary"? When the hell did competing become a bad thing, a parent got mad because her kid sucked at dodgeball? :eyes:

[femmocrat]

39. Our district banned it because the kids were whaling the ball at

other kids' heads and intentionally trying to hurt them. Kids simply do not know how to "play nice." It always turns into a bunch of whining, crying, and bullying. Personally, I blame violent movies and video games and those parents who are too (you fill in the blank) to teach their children appropriate behavior.

[Odin2005]

50. Violent movies and games have nothing to do with it.

Violent stuff just sets off people who are predisposed for acting violently, though I agree with you on the bad parents part.

[Marrah_G]

40. This isn't a Boston school

Attleboro is actually on the Rhode Island border.

This school in particular has no grassy area on its playground, just asphalt.

Schools have to be very careful these days about schoolyard violence, harrassment and injury. They risk expensive litigation if they do not and THAT would directly affect my childrens education. Our school budget is already stretched too thin.

Other then this very minor thing, it is a fabulous place to live and raise a family.

[proud2BlibKansan]

54. Glad to see you get it

[Sin]

48. So

when a whole bunch of hyperactive kids start popping up in the classrooms at this school they will probably just suggest Ritalin to calm them down then I'm guessing a fair portion will get a little chunky from not moving.

So there will be a rash of fat depressed kids in a prison like environment with all the new security measures in place and they will all be getting more and more stupid because of the no child left behind act.

wee the future looks grand.

[Kerrytravelers]

49. By law, I can't suggest medication nor can I suggest seeing the doctor.

I can be responsible for the costs of said appointment or medication if a parent feels I am directing them to take their kid to the doctor. And, when a kid gets hurt on the playground, a parent can file a complaint against me to be placed in my permanent file.

I know most parents won't do this, but unfortunately, I don't always know which parents will so I have to tread very carefully in the water of parental communications.

Needless to say, it's no surprise that a whopping 85% of teachers quit within the first five years. One looney parent can possibly ruin a career.

[Odin2005]

51. This is why if I have kids I'm homeschooling them.

I'n not going to send my kids to de facto prisons that doesn't let kids be kids and teach to the test and nothing but the test.

[proud2BlibKansan]

55. Well parents still do have some responsibilities

It blows my mind that so many peeople in this thread apparently think the only time kids get any exercise is at recess.

Turn off that TV and sign your kids up for soccer. Take a walk with them. Go bike riding. Don't depend on the schools for everything. They are YOUR kids. Make them exercise.

[DTinAZ]

52. Broke my jaw playing "capture the flag"

I was a bit older, however....10th grade. Our "off season sports" PE class tended to start playing tackle football (no pads) when the teachers weren't watching, so they "punished" us with a big game of "capture the flag." I saw our best sprinter heading back with the flag and went in to run some interference. I had a face to head collision with the guy chasing him and he was knocked out cold, while I literally heard the sound of a large gong...a bit like fighters hearing imaginary bells. Cracked my jaw...almost had it wired shut, which wouldn't be a big deal except for my upcoming solo in the choir concert.

Simple games can get violent and people can get hurt, but....stuff happens and we usually learn from it (even if the lesson is just to stay out of the big guy's way!).

Thanks for listening. :-)

DT

[greblc]

53. Finaly... now our children can stop running...

and gain some weight!

F'n dumbasses!

[proud2BlibKansan]

56. And they have zero chance to exercise at home?

I guess Mom fattens them up too and depends on the school to take the weight off?

sheesh. Whose kids ARE these?