Schools Ban Tag, Dodge Ball and Other Games

Foxnews.com ^ | Nov 19,2002 | The Associated Press

[winner3000]

TRENTON, NJ-November 18, 2002 — Tag, dodge ball and other playground favorites are coming under more scrutiny at many New Jersey schools, as the threat of injuries and lawsuits spurs more districts to ban the games. In Long Hill, a ban on tag was part of a code of conduct signed by pupils at one of the Morris County district's elementary schools this year. Instead, a modified version of the game is played indoors with plenty of supervision.

"The idea of loosely running around and chasing each other is not safe," Long Hill Superintendent Arthur DiBenedetto told The Star-Ledger of Newark for Monday's editions.

In recent years, similar bans have been put in place at schools in Maplewood, North Caldwell and Woodbridge, mostly because children were being hurt when they fell or were piled on by classmates. However, many experts, parents and pupils claim the bans do more harm than good.

"We live in a society that makes kids so safe, ultimately, we'll put them in a cocoon," said Charles T. Kuntzleman, a University of Michigan professor of kinesiology, the study of exercise and body movement.

Tag is not the only game that has been targeted. Dodge ball, also known as bombardment, was banned at several schools in New Jersey and other states because officials feared that some students were being singled out as targets by bullies.

"There's potential for some victimization," said Mary Beth Klotz, a psychologist with the National Association of School Psychologists. "Tag may look OK socially, but it can be a double standard because kids can use it to bully a certain student."

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Hide the Belt sounds vaugely like Smear the Queer.

In Smear the Queer one person would take a football and start running like hell. Everyone else would chase after him and try to tackle him and pound the crap out of him to get the ball. Once you got the ball, you'd start running like hell with everyone now after you.

There wasn't a purpose to the game, and no, of corse the girls did not play. Great name though.

[lds23]

I suppose witty, urbane banter will now be encouraged amongst the second graders instead.

[shaggy eel]

,,, smear the queer is one I'd never heard of until I got onto FreeRepublic. I had to ask what is was and it was described as you've outlined it. It translates to what I always knew as Bullrush but my days of calling it Bullrush are now gone.

[Political Junkie Too]

That's why the nurse was saying the federal law exists, to tell you: any kid could have it.

Why do we need a federal law for this? Are we now passing federal laws to regulate the game of Tag?

Seriously, when the law is federalized, it is not saying that any kid in the game could have it, it is saying that any kid anywhere can have it, all over a small group of kids playing on a schoolyard. That's what federalizing does -- it makes it apply equally to everyone anywhere in the country.

If government has to get involved (and that's a BIG if), then it should be the states that get involved, just in case some states don't see a problem in their schoolyards and don't want to be coerced into more regulations that take a sledghammer approach to swatting flies.

-PJ

[Dr.Deth]

Dodgeball is just a nice respite from hockey and lacrosse... they need to start those in gym right around 3rd grade.

[DouglasKC]

Kids have been loosely running around and chasing ONE ANOTHER for decades.

Try millenia... :-)

[BOBWADE]

How about "smear the queer" (AKA kill the man with the ball) That was one of my childhood favorites. :^)

[Dan from Michigan]

LOL. I knew of smeer the queer since before I knew what a queer really was.

[hobbes1]

Geez, when I was a kid in Brooklyn, we played a school yard game called "Hide the Belt". Someone would hide a belt and declare a home base. Everyone would go looking for the belt. The person would found it could beat the living sh*t out of any and all until they found sanctuary at home base.

We called it Huckle Buckle.

LOL. Pre High School track team training.....

[summer]

This isn't worth discussing any further, IMO.

LOL...good thing you don't work in a school! Because now school districts have to inform employees that little Bubba may have an HIV infected mom, and little Bubba doesn't even know he's infected, or his mom knows but hasn't even told the school district. So, it's very important for teachers and other school employees to be aware fo the risk.

HIV does not "go away" after you get it - there's no surgery or drugs that really eliminates the condition. If you would feel comfortable getting it and living with it, you have a lot more guts than I do. IMO, there's plenty of other things for kids to do than play contact sports with jocks who, in all liklihood, are probably the most sexually active in the school. But, to each his own!

[summer]

LOL... :)

[ActionNewsBill]

What pure b.s. These are back door attempts by illustrious educators at banning competition in all forms. Nobody is allowed to excell in anything, PERIOD.

Must be why these folks like soccer so much....a lot of the games end in a tie.

[summer]

BTW, I just did a search on google for this entry:

"HIV" AND "Contact sports" AND "Students"

Result: A total of 439 articles/entires came up.

Apparently, the school district where I teach is not the only place talking about this topic.

[summer]

BTW, I just did a search on google for this entry: "HIV" AND "Contact sports" AND "Students"

Result: A total of 439 articles/entries came up.

Apparently, the school district where I teach is not the only place talking about this topic.

[summer]

RE google search on : "HIV" AND "contact sports" AND "Students"

Correction: 563 articles/entries come up.

[summer]

HIV/AIDS

What Educators Should Know

by Tiffany A. Chenneville & Howard M. Knoff, Ph.D.

University of South Florida

Introduction

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is not only a health crisis, but a social crisis that has affected every sector of the United States. The number of persons with AIDS in the United States is staggering, and it continues to multiply. Furthermore, the growing number of individuals infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, is even more disturbing. Nobody is immune because AIDS does not discriminate by sexual orientation, gender, race, socioeconomic status or age.

The failure of AIDS to discriminate by age is evident by the growing number of children and adolescents infected by HIV/AIDS. There also are scores of children who are not infected, yet are affected by HIV/AIDS because one or both of their parents, or other family members, have been diagnosed as being HIV positive or having AIDS. In fact, an increasingly large number of children have been orphaned by parents who have died from AIDS. It is estimated that over 80,000 children will have been orphaned by the year 2000 due to parental deaths caused by AIDS. Non-infected children and adolescents also may be affected through their association with peers or significant others who are HIV positive, have AIDS, or who have lost loved ones due to AIDS.

HIV/AIDS in Children and Young Adults:As of June, 1996, over a half a million (548,102) diagnosed AIDS cases had been reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Approximately 1.3% (or 7,296) were children less than thirteen years old. This is a significant increase from the 3,898 pediatric AIDS cases reported just three years before in 1992. Relative to adolescents, the incidence of AIDS also is considered to be large and increasing. In fact, AIDS is considered to be one of the leading causes of death among teenagers, and it is estimated that two individuals under the age of 25 are infected with HIV every hour. AIDS is also the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 25 to 44 in the United States. This is significant because it is believed that many of the young adults currently infected with HIV/AIDS may have contracted the HIV virus during adolescence. Thus, adolescent incidence figures may underestimate those who contract HIV but do not exhibit its symptoms until early adolescence.

Relative to gender, HIV is being contracted more rapidly by women, including young girls and adolescents, than by men. Critically, the large and increasing number of females with AIDS also increases the probability of children being born with HIV due to pre-natal or peri-natal transmission. It is estimated that 25% of infants born to HIV-infected mothers will themselves become infected. These children represent one of the fastest growing groups testing positive for the HIV virus....

[gingerky]

I didn't know what "smear the queer" was when my sons (10 & 14)and my nephew (12) were talking about it one day. I told them it didn't sound like a nice game. My husband then got in the car and when I told him about this horrible game they were playing he said, "Oh yeah, I remember playing "smear the queer", we used to have the best time ........". I gave up that day.

When my kids were younger the elementary school had a dome shaped monkey bar type thing. The boys would line the inside of the dome standing shoulder to shoulder so the teachers couldn't see the wrestling matches they were having inside. The teachers didn't have a clue until someone snitched.

[summer]

Re your post #57 - Hey, keeping up with all the good things Gov Jeb Bush does here in FL is a FULLTIME job!!!!

But, for you, here's a link:

Gov Bush issues Executive Order to Keep FL on the Cutting Edge of Election Reform -- Nov 2002

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Another example of how American kids are systematically being turned into wusses.

(Although in 7th grade we had a sadistic gym teacher who got off on throwing the ball at the kids as hard as he could. It was working out well for him until he broke a kid's arm.)

[jalisco555]

Several issues here. First, the move to ban dodgeball, tag etc. is just silly PC nonsense. Second, kids need some kind of physical outlet during the school-day, especially younger kids. Banning recess, PE etc. will only lead to a school full of kids bouncing off the walls by the end of the day which may even be more dangerous than supervised physical activity.

As for the HIV issue it is true that the rules on HIV confidentiality are extremely strict. I handle blood and body fluids all the time and usually I'm not told about a person's HIV status. I have to assume they're all positive. That being said, I'm not aware of a single case of documented HIV transmission during athletic activity. Due to the nature of the virus this sort of transmission is very unlikely and I would not tell people to withdraw their kids from sports because they would be playing with an infected child.

BTW, among medical people there is really very little concern about occupational AIDS exposure. The disease we really fear is Hepatitis.