Topic: Schools ban tag. Yes, TAG!

[idolminds]

We are going to hell in a handbasket.

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.

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

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.

Elementary schools in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Spokane, Washington, also recently banned tag during recess. A suburban Charleston, South Carolina, 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.

First, someone kill that dumb bitch. Oh god, a "near collision"! They almost ran into each other, but didnt! The horror!

What the hell is this? If you see kids having fun durring recess, you stop them? "Hey hey hey! Stop that! Go sit over there and don't touch anything."

Kids cant even be kids anymore.

[angrykeebler]

"hey kids..just sit around and get fatter than you already are!"

[scottws]

I was just about to say something similar.

Lame.  Getting hurt is part of growing up.  I always am telling Jennie's 5-y/o son, who acts like he's made of glass sometimes, that he's not having a good time if he doesn't get hurt a little bit.  Actually, it's more like after he gets hurt I tell him that means he was having a good time.

Our common-law system needs complete revision.  It's already getting ridiculous with all the lawsuits.  At some point some judge is going to have to stand up and say "Get the heck out of my courtroom with this nonsense!"

[Pugnate]

I hate the fact that everything in life is following a written manual these days.

[poomcgoo]

Wow.  Our future generations are gonna be huge pussies.

[Xessive]

I kinda saw this coming.. I didn't think it would be this bad this soon though! It started with the the whole "bullies" (which seemed reasonable enough) and slowly worked its way to this.

Bullies are necessary, they pose a "rite of passage" for every child. The day you defeat your bully (mentally or physically) marks an important stage in your development. If I didn't get bullied around as a kid (I was a fairly small kid) I'd probably be an incompetent, whining, weenie by now! Kids playing tag, hide and seek, cops & robbers, and other games is natural and necessary for their development.

Seriously, the next generation of people are gonna be a bunch of squealing wussies.

[ren]

It's stupid, but not the end of the world. Kids can't play tag, they come up with something else to do. At my primary school we got banned from doing practically any activity at recess, because we would always turn it dangerous. Soon they'll be playing a game remarkably like tag, but not tag, and life will go on until parents complain about that. I'm against the banning of Tag in principle, but I don't see it changing much in the schoolyard.

[Xessive]

Hmm, I remember gum was prohibited in my school. We still snuck it around like it was drugs.

[shock]

I don't blame the schools as much as I blame the legal system.

[Quemaqua]

Fucking idiotic.  I can't even begin to express how angry this makes me.

[poomcgoo]

Holy shit.  I live in Attleboro.  I didn't read the article the first time I posted here, but that's where I live/grew-up.  Willett is "the other" elementary school, one of my best friends went there.  Hill-Roberts represent!