Playgrounds are Not for Playing
Sometimes I really, really hate what this country seems to be in the process of becoming.
This is sad on so many levels, not the lowest of which is that this is taking place in the midst of a moral panic over childhood obesity:
Andrea Levin is grateful that Broward County schools care about her daughter’s safety. But this year when they posted a sign that demanded “no running” on the playground, it seemed like overkill.
“I realize we want to keep kids from cracking their heads open,” said Levin, whose daughter is a Gator Run Elementary fifth grader in Weston. “But there has to be a place where they can get out and run.”
Broward’s “Rules of the Playground” signs, bought from an equipment catalogue and displayed at all 137 elementary schools in the district, are just one of several steps taken to cut down on injuries and the lawsuits they inspire.
“It’s too tight around the equipment to be running,” said Safety Director Jerry Graziose, the Broward County official who ordered the signs. “Our job was to try to control it.”
Also out of favor are swings, merry-go-rounds, teeter-totters, and sandboxes.
Via Overlawyered who picked up the story from Abstract Appeal.
It’s amazing that we as a civilzation have made it this far without all of the currently mandated safety measures not in effect when we were growing up.
Posted by Larry Morin on 07/19 at 07:23 PMYep, I’m totally posting a link to this on my site. One of the last quotes in that article sums it up. My husband has said for years that we are raising a nation of p*ssies. (his words, not mine!)
Posted by Redhead Mommy on 07/19 at 08:18 PMgordon liddy wrote a book about how when he grew up this was a free country. there was a case here where some woman sued and won because her 8 year old fell off the monkey bars at her church playground. i got this scar on my chin from my school playground.
Posted by on 07/19 at 10:17 PMAnd yet the standard pictorial traffic sign for a playground is a teeter-totter.
Posted by CGHill on 07/20 at 11:04 AM
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