A school district in Washington State banned the popular children's game of tag during recess. Why? Because it feared for the children's safety.
The Mercer Island School District in Washington State gathered the ire of several parents when it declared a ban on the game.
"While at play, especially during recess and unstructured time, students are expected to keep their hands to themselves. The rationale behind this is to ensure the physical and emotional safety of all students," explained Mary Grady, the communications director for Mercer Island School District communications in an email.
Melissa Neher, a Seattle-based mother of two, discovered from her kids that the school had banned the playing of tag during recess in the playground. She then went on to create a Facebook group dubbed Support Tag At Recess in Mercer Island (STAR MI) to spread the word about the school's ridiculous ban to other parents. The parents were irate that the school had not taken into consideration their thoughts on the issue.
Parents felt the need of unstructured play time for their children and voiced the importance of physical games. The "hands off" policy from the school required that the children keep their hands and feet to themselves during recess.
As the issue spiraled out of control and gathered media attention, Gary Plano, the school's superintendent, averred that Mercer Island School District was "regretful" that the "hands-off" rule for tag from the school was facing backlash. A committee would be in place to take inputs from parents.
The school later clarified its stance in a statement saying that it was prompted to take the measure post isolated incidents, which led to "unfortunate interactions."
"We plan to support our elementary students with new games and alternatives that still involve running and exercising. We want to initiate a new form of tag-like running games to minimize the issues of you were tagged / no I wasn't' or the tag was too hard and felt more like a hit.' Tag is not banned," stated Mercer Island School District.
Tag has now been reinstated in the school in its original form.
Photo: Ian D. Keating | Flickr
