Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Soccer balls booted from east Toronto school after parent injured - Yahoo! News (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/soccer-balls-booted-east-toronto-school-parent-injuried-185025675.html - broken link)
Before anyone starts making remarks about Canada don't forget we've had our own share of similarly dopey school-related bans, like the game of tag and red marking pens (because that color is too "negative" ).
Anyhoo.......
Seriously? Soccer balls? The ban also includes footballs and tennis balls. Sheesh. Reminds me of a classic sci-fi novelette by Jack Williamson called "With Folded Hands" (contains spoilers & the ending), when among other life-stifling actions, the robots confiscated all the kids' toys that had any sharp edges or other features that might/maybe/possibly cause the child to come to any kind of harm.
Next to go? Stairways, because of all their hard surfaces and potential for falls.
This was over 10 years ago, so I don't recall all the exact details, but when my son was in 5th grade he was hit in the face with a soccer ball. I was called from work to come pick him up to go see a Dr. I don't recall the exact injury (detatched retina?) but he had to stay home for 6 days and NOT move his eyes. No books, movies, etc. or risk losing his sight. Try and keep a kid that age entertained and still for THAT long! Anyway we did, and he was fine. Since that he's played HS basketball, baseball and other sports he NEVER again had an injury that scared us THAT much.
It's sucks and seems to be over kill AND I'm not sure I entirely agree, HOWEVER, from my point of view it's not entirely out of line.
There's always the possibility for injury in ANY sport because motion of some sort is inherent to those activities, so there is simply no way to make them 100% safe. They never described how the parent got whacked by a soccer ball so hard it caused a concussion, but I assume that happened because the parent was standing next to the field where the game was occurring. That seems like a one-in-a-million chance type of thing, so IMO definitely nothing to panic over like this school did. And if they are afraid of lawsuits, enact a rule that says except for athletes or school employees, no one can be within X feet of the playing field.
There is some hypocrisy in these situations though. For example I've seen the statistics for the increasing number of severe injuries in football, including concussions during games and even deaths during overly-zealous afternoon practices, but have yet to seen any schools ban football. I would like to hear from the administrators and coaches as to why that is so.
Did they ban PE as well ? Think of the injuries a child could incur..some with blood even.
You know, walking from one classroom to another could lead to someone falling down and hurting themselves.
Come to think of it..even allowing a child to leave the home is putting them in danger of possibly hurting themselves.
First, I think they should lock anyone up that is found kissing in the halls or holding hands, that leads to SEX!!
Second, ban all toilet seats and locker room benches!! MRSA is a deadly killer and can be contacted through toilet seats and benches in locker rooms! Leads to DEATH!!
Stairwells. Falling down them. Leads to DEATH and INJURY.
Teachers, giving bad grades to Students. Leads to INSECURITIES.
Students should be the same height in Schools. Leads to INSECURITIES and promotes COMPETITION.
ALL BAD... ALL HURTFUL... ALL THE CHILDREN, I weep for them, because we have idiots who are 'Politically Correct' and wont let a Student try his/her best to excel...
I hope they can wean this out, when they get older, cause we have transformed them into weenies and whinners, sheesh! (The Parents and Those Running the School Systems that is LOL).
My kids elementary school put a ban on certain recess and lunch time games like "Red Rover" and football because the group of kids playing it were using it as an excuse to get out of control. Yeah, there were complaints but it was done to make life easier for everyone, I was a playground supervisor and saw for myself but the following year the kids changed, new groups and interests were formed, things went back to normal and there was no need to ban anything.
Soccer balls booted from east Toronto school after parent injured - Yahoo! News (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/soccer-balls-booted-east-toronto-school-parent-injuried-185025675.html - broken link)
Before anyone starts making remarks about Canada don't forget we've had our own share of similarly dopey school-related bans, like the game of tag and red marking pens (because that color is too "negative" ).
Anyhoo.......
Seriously? Soccer balls? The ban also includes footballs and tennis balls. Sheesh. Reminds me of a classic sci-fi novelette by Jack Williamson called "With Folded Hands" (contains spoilers & the ending), when among other life-stifling actions, the robots confiscated all the kids' toys that had any sharp edges or other features that might/maybe/possibly cause the child to come to any kind of harm.
Next to go? Stairways, because of all their hard surfaces and potential for falls.
What the hell happened to the winning attitude you people used to be known for back in the 80's or so?
*Now creationism is prioritized over evolution in some schools(WTF?), this and that is banned right and left,
*PE-teachers get crap because some kid appearently died from doing 20 push-ups(Maybe evolution needs to be taught there?),
*8-year olds get turned in to the police for "sexual assault" after grabbing some girl on her but (lmao, boys will be boys...).
*And all the child-obesity OMFG!?! what the heck happened there?
Damnit it Americans and Canadians, when did your generation of kids turn from winners and go-geters to become these fragile little snowflakes?
They're in school to get equipped for life aren't they? Let em hurt themselves a little bit, it'll harden them in the long run.
It's almost tragic to see story after story about these things.
Edit
On a note about soccer, I remember our principal runiing out to the soccer field and play with us when we were 1 guy short.
There was also this time a teacher played ice-hockey with us... we'd tackle eachother and all that(even if the teacher didn't), no pads and nobody saw a problem.
Sure there were some bleeding noses a couple of stick-fights when we didn't agree on a goal but sh1t happens.
Damnit it Americans and Canadians, when did your generation of kids turn from winners and go-geters to become these fragile little snowflakes?
My own personal theory? The snowflake thing was the result of that "go getter" attitude, not because of the go-getter attitude itself which I think is good, but the intensity of it.
It was back in the 80s that the winning-is-everything and do-anything-to-win attitude seemed to have reared their ugly heads. So naturally there was a backlash among many people to such selfishness/arrogance/destructiveness, which imo took the form of going in the opposite direction and trying to teach kids to be exceptionally gentle, empathetic and nurturing, which I do think are admirable qualities. But those traits can ALSO be taken too far, very possibly resulting in a person that for example can be too easily hurt, emotionally-speaking but also physically-speaking (because they won't fight back even in a situation where it's perfectly clear they were doing nothing wrong & should actively defend themselves). Or, is so concerned about "letting everyone do their own thing" or not hurting another's feelings in even the slightest manner, the result being that they won't tell that other person they are doing something wrong even if doing so would help that person in the long run, sometimes even if that other person's actions are negatively affecting others around him.
Sometimes I think this is why bullying in schools has become so extreme, because when the super-go-getters are combined with the super-gentle snowflakes, I'm not surprised at all the snowflakes are having such a hard time.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
don't forget we've had our own share of similarly dopey school-related bans, like the game of tag and red marking pens (because that color is too "negative" 
).
lol
