Tag, Touch Football banned

[EStreetJoe]

With the board being down for a while yesterday I haven't seen this posted here yet... (apologies if this turns out being a double-post)

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/18/no.tag.ap/index.html

School bans tag, other chase games
POSTED: 10:52 a.m. EDT, October 18, 2006

ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts (AP) -- Tag, you're out!

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 devlop 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.

 

[kingcreole]

Good gawd. I remember playing Kill The Man With The Ball at recess. And now they're banning touch football?

 

[Cosmo]

Good lord. And we wonder why half of America's children are obese.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

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

That's how I happe ... never mind.

 

[EStreetJoe]

I'm wondering what's next - banning kickball? Or maybe just modifying the kickball rules so you can only tag or force a runner out instead of being able to throw the ball at the runner to get him/her out.

Or are they going to ban duck,duck, goose next because someone might get tapped (or hit) too hard by the person going around? Maybe they'll ban basketball because someone might get bumped into too hard going for a rebound. Or maybe ban baseball/softball because someone could get hit by a pitch/batted ball/misthrown-misfielded ball.

Why do parents who had so much fun as kids playing games like dodgeball, tag, touch football, etc. scare schools and/or school districts into banning those games? It's beyond belief.

 

[goalmouth]

They should ban some of the teachers, that's where the real damage occurs.

 

[slappy4428]

Sorry, but it's our fault.
Because we live in a society where people sue at the drop of a hat, this happens. Our parents raised a bunch of pussies. And what's worse is that we (society in general) are going to teach this to our children indirectly and instead of learning to fend for themselves, the cycle will get worse.

Ryan Sonner, excepted...

 

[Idaho]

I hope they ban kissing tag. Somebody's going to get mono or herpes and it'll be Principal Skinner's fault.

 

[Football_Bat]

"Tag" means "day" in German.

So I guess that means day is done.

 

[farmerjerome]

I hope they ban kissing tag. Somebody's going to get mono or herpes and it'll be Principal Skinner's fault.

 

[Gold]

My gosh, the terrorists have won.

 

[JR]

I'm glad they did this.

What if YOUR son or daughter were constantly "it"?

Think of their self-esteem. They may end up in years of therapy.

THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

Rope skipping is next. Then hopscotch.

The only thing the kids will have left to do at recess is deal drugs.

 

[kingcreole]

My gosh, the terrorists have won.

Why do you hate America?

 

[bigpern23]

I'm no parent, so perhaps this is a naive view, but for the most part, the worst that's going to happen to a kid playing tag or touch football is they break an arm or something. It sounds terrible and I'm sure no parent wants to see their kid in pain, but damn, a broken bone really isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

I, like most of you, played touch football as a kid. Hell, we played tackle football when we could get away with it. We played a game called "muckle," in which the object was that everyone -- I mean everyone -- tried to tackle the kid with the ball. It was one-on-30 mayhem.

I rode a bicycle with no helmet. I jumped out of trees just for kicks. Somehow, I -- and hundreds of thousands of kids just like me -- survived all that and didn't get brain damage (at least not from anything worse than excessive amounts of hops and barley).

Toughen up, you pussies!

 

[Gold]

My gosh, the terrorists have won.

Why do you hate America?

If kids can't play tag and touch football at recess and lunch, it ain't America any more.

 

[Idaho]

My gosh, the terrorists have won.

Terrorists = Ambulance chasing lawyers

 

[Gold]

My gosh, the terrorists have won.

Terrorists = Ambulance chasing lawyers

Yeah, I guess that is one way to put it.

 

[Van Lingle Mungo]

We played a game called "muckle," in which the object was that everyone -- I mean everyone -- tried to tackle the kid with the ball. It was one-on-30 mayhem.

Good gawd. I remember playing Kill The Man With The Ball at recess. And now they're banning touch football?

Were we the only ones to call it "Smear the Queer?" Not that we knew what exactly the word meant.

 

[JR]

Maybe they should just ban recess.

 

[poindexter]