Middle School Bans Balls and Tag from Recess

When you think of kids at recess, you probably think of basketball or soccer games, others running around playing tag, but one school has banned all of that.

WCBS-TV reports that Weber Middle School on Long Island has banned hard soccer balls, baseballs, lacrosse balls, along with rough games of tag or cartwheels unless supervised by a coach.

...

Seriously?

The superintendent claims the ban was enacted because of an increase of playground injuries, with one local emergency room director reporting, 'head injuries, bumps, scrapes' and being 'worried about concussions.'

Baseballs and footballs will be replaced with foam ones in an attempt to reduce injury.

It seems pretty obvious that it's an attempt to reduce lawsuits, which is ridiculous enough.

How many of us got cut, scraped, and generally hurt during recess? I still have a scar on my knee from a 4th grade incident with some unforgiving pavement.

My parents didn't sue the school; they put a bandage on my leg and off I went. Why do we have to coddle kids so much?

Of course we want to keep children safe, but we can't put them in a bubble. We all had to learn to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and keep going when we got hurt.

You can't prevent every problem in someone's life...but you can teach them the best way to deal with one.

What's wrong with the concept of, 'If you get hit with a baseball, yes, it will hurt, and you will get a bruise, or possibly even break a bone, but you will heal and be okay.'

Why can't we teach our kids to be resilient instead of being afraid of everything?

It's TAG, not warfare.

Should tag or hard balls be banned from recess? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!