I spent the first two years of my son's life trying to insulate him from any pain or injury. Then I learned that the laws of gravity and momentum are far better teachers. I think he's just about fully recovered.
Posted on 10/13/2005 10:53:27 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
Merry-go-rounds, seesaws and tall metal slides are gone. East Valley schools also forbid tackle football, jumping off swings and hanging upside down from monkey bars. Students can still play tag — but they must "power walk" or skip at some schools because running is too dangerous. Pioneer Elementary School in Gilbert prohibits tag altogether.
And that’s just the beginning of the rules that principals, playground aides and lawmakers have created in recent years to keep schoolchildren safe.
Johnson Elementary School in Mesa banned flip-flops this semester to protect children from twisted ankles and stubbed toes. Sonoran Sky Elementary School in the Paradise Valley Unified School District requires children to wear hats when they go outdoors — a response to a new state law that requires public schools to teach about skin cancer. State lawmakers also passed a junk food ban this year to protect children from obesity.
And the Mesa Unified School District installed fences around its high schools this summer to keep students inside and protect them from lunchtime traffic crashes.
Gilbert parent Cindy Duffy said she agrees with some of the precautions, but she said many schools go too far in dictating what children can and cannot do.
"I think they’re taking away kids’ creativity," Duffy said. "Schools are telling them how to play, and that’s their creative time."
But Deb Pangrazi, program specialist for elementary physical education in the Mesa district, said educators have learned from all the broken bones and other injuries.
"I just think we’re much more responsible now," she said.
LETTING KIDS BE KIDS
Rhonda Clements, past president of the American Association for the Child’s Right to Play, disagreed. She said too many safety rules rob children of a chance to explore their world and take healthy risks.
"We’re seeing way too much adult-structured activity, and children aren’t free to make their own decisions," said Clements, director of graduate physical education at Manhattanville College in New York. "Sometimes children have to learn through trial and error."
She said kids need a chance to be kids.
"When they lowered the height of slides, kids began to jump off the top of the slide," she said. "A child is naturally going to find a way for that risk taking, and if we don’t give them that chance, we’ll have a society of children that are totally sheltered."
Chandler Christian School fifth-grader Kenzie McGinnis, 10, said she would welcome more playground freedom. She said she misses games such as dodgeball, which her school prohibits.
"We also can’t play tag on the playground equipment, which is really fun," Kenzie said. "I wish I could because it’s fun."
MODERN PLAYGROUND
School maintenance workers in Mesa used to design and build their own playground gear for students.
But the wood splintered, pieces came loose and metal bars grew hot in the Arizona sun.
Susan Hudson, education director for the National Program for Playground Safety, said the first playground regulations emerged in 1981.
"You want to make sure that kids aren’t going to get their head entrapped in guardrails, that there is adequate surfacing under and around the playground equipment," she said. "That there aren’t pinch points or loose nuts or bolts, entrapment areas or entanglement areas."
She said the notion that height increases the fun factor is not always true.
"What you have done with height is only increase the risk, but you have done nothing to increase the challenge," Hudson said. "That’s why kids start to misuse the equipment. They will go down the slide backward or climb up the slide chute. What the child is trying to do is increase the complexity of the task. Rather than worrying about if fun has been taken out, (we should look at) what we are doing for the child. Maybe it means a different design of the playgrounds of the 21st century that don’t look like the playgrounds of the 19th century."
REVAMPING P.E.
T.J. Jackson, 47, has taught physical education in the Mesa district for more than two decades and has seen many changes.
He said teachers today not only protect children from injury but also from hurt feelings.
Students used to share one basketball and took turns shooting baskets. Now, he said, teachers give children their own balls so they can focus on their skills and not worry about classmates making fun of them if they don’t perform as well.
"We want to (teach) in a way that nobody’s going to walk out of here humiliated or hurt," said Jackson, a teacher at Hale Elementary School.
During a recent class, Jackson had his first-graders toss colorful yarn balls into the air. The balls are softer than the beanbags the school sometimes uses, he said, and the children feel comfortable tossing them because they know the balls won’t hurt if they fail to catch them.
"We’re looking out for the masses," Jackson said. "I don’t think we can be too safe."
‘LITIGATION HAPPY SOCIETY’
Jackson acknowledged that trip-and-fall lawsuits have also influenced safety rules.
"I don’t know what caused teeter-totters to go, but I bet it was litigation," he said. "It doesn’t take much for people to go that route."
Lawsuits have meant fewer swing sets in places such as Scottsdale.
"I think swings were the one piece of playground equipment that went by the wayside," said Scottsdale Unified School District governing board president Christine Schild, who also is an attorney. "Too many kids got killed or had brain damage as a result of falling off swings and hitting their heads on the ground."
Paradise Valley district spokeswoman Judi Willis said playgrounds in her district are reviewed for safety by the Valley Schools Insurance Trust, an intergovernmental risk retention pool that provides liability coverage to several Valley school districts.
The group also provides training for all Paradise Valley playground aides, said risk management supervisor Tom Bock.
"When I was a kid, we played on the swings and stuff and there was no sand underneath us, and no one cared," Bock said. "If you fell and got hurt, you went to the doctor and got it taken care of. Now there is more supervision — but there are still losses. We’re a litigation happy society."
Gilbert parent Chad McGinnis said he understands the influence of lawsuits on school safety rules.
"The way our society is with lawsuits and everything, I don’t blame them from doing it," said McGinnis, who has three children attending Chandler Christian School.
NO END TO INJURIES
But the precautions might not be working.
Bock said he has heard that students today have more serious playground injuries when they fall, as compared to 20 years ago.
"Now when a kid falls, they break something — whereas 20 years ago, they didn’t," he said. "The equipment and grounds were much worse than they are today, with sand and wood chips and that rubber stuff, yet the injuries are often worse."
He said perhaps childhood obesity and lack of exercise could mean that students today are less fit and, therefore, more likely to fall the wrong way and injure themselves.
Each year about 200,000 children age 15 and younger in the U.S. are taken to emergency rooms for playgroundrelated injuries. Forty-five percent of the injuries are fractures, concussions and dislocations, he said.
Safety sampler
PROTECTING KIDS: Here are some random policies and procedures from East Valley schools:
MESA: Children use beach balls when learning volleyball at Hale Elementary School. Children must not wear flip-flops at Johnson Elementary School.
CHANDLER: Impact-absorbing wood chips cover the ground under playground equipment at San Marcos Elementary School. Bike riders must wear helmets at Bologna Elementary School and outdoor drinking fountains have chilled water to encourage students to stay hydrated. No hanging upside down at the Traditional Academy-Liberty campus.
GILBERT: The Gilbert Unified School District has cut back on the purchase of swing sets.
QUEEN CREEK: Frances Brandon-Pickett Elementary School weighed children’s backpacks this semester as a deterrent against back injuries.
SCOTTSDALE: The Scottsdale Unified School District playground safety manual bans the following activities:
• Climbing up a slide.
• Hanging by your knees on a jungle gym.
• Twisting or twirling on swings.
• More than one child at a time on a playground ladder. Contact Hayley Ringle by email, or phone (480)-898-6301
Oh man. Back in the 70s we used to ride our "dirt bikes" and pop wheelies all over the playground. And occasionally after school we'd set up ramps (progessively further apart) and try to emulate Evel Knievel.
Today that would spell expulsion, no doubt.
Kids! Shut up, sit down, and play with your condoms!
No centerfire rifles until the child reaches the age of 12.
In some schools in the same area as this article, there is no recess at all. I remember two years ago my son wrote a letter to the paper about how children need to be able to play in order to think. He was 9 years old at the time and is homeschooled, but he was worried about other kids not being able to play.
Now that we've saved children from the dangers of running and playing, let's turn our attention to the growing epidemic of childhood obesity! There's always something to keep a do-gooder a busy bee!
Are they being overly mothered or overly fathered?
How is she supposed to protect herself on the way home if she can't carry her knife?
No recess? Sick.
All work and no play makes little Johnny into a nice little Ritalin candidate.
LOL! Raised in the good old days, I watched my brother and his friends play this quite often..sure someone could have gotten hurt..no one ever did...this game taught a person how to be CAREFUL.
Once, my brother road his mini-bike straight up the back fence, and it flipped over at the top in a full circle..he came away with a broken wrist..So what? He and his friends also built a great tree-house using old lumber, saws and hammers and nails..you had to be careful up there. SO What? It was great fun.
These boys all grew up to be MEN not meows.
I spent the first two years of my son's life trying to insulate him from any pain or injury. Then I learned that the laws of gravity and momentum are far better teachers. I think he's just about fully recovered.
Until the parents sue the schools for failing to provide adequate physical recreational activities and thereby causing their children to be obese!
I was born in 64 and have battle scars to prove it. I can think of several trips to the hospital for stitches. The same goes for my sisters as well.
It's not just the trial lawyers, it's the sissy hall monitor types that go around implementing this crap that need a midnight wakeup to tar and feathers. Otherwise there will be no end to it.
Dodgeball was awesome; we loved it in elementary school. "If the ball hits your head, it doesn't count." The current bans make no sense whatsoever.
Bump
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