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No balls in Tranna?

2K views 26 replies 14 participants last post by  Macfury 
#1 ·
Parents cry foul after elementary school bans balls.

A Toronto elementary school has banned most balls from its playground, citing the need to protect staff and students after a parent got hit in the head with a soccer ball.

...

On Monday, Earl Beatty Junior and Senior Public School principal Alicia Fernandez sent home a note warning parents their students are no longer allowed to bring soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, footballs and volleyballs to school. All balls that weren’t made of sponge, or nerf, material would be confiscated.

The east-end school, which has about 350 students in Kindergarten to Grade 8, along with a daycare, has a small, walled playground that gets crowded during recess and flying balls had become a constant problem, said ward trustee Sheila Cary-Meagher. Two weeks ago a mother picking up her child at the daycare went to hospital with a concussion after getting struck in the back of the head with a soccer ball.
The ban on balls is part of growing restrictions on sport activities in the name of safety, child-health researchers say, even as policy makers promote physical education as a way to curb rising rates of childhood obesity. Schools have banned dodgeball and floor hockey, while others have outlawed contact sports like tag. In 2008 an Australian school made international headlines after it made headstands illegal for fear of neck and back injuries.
Is this for real? :eek:

“It sends the wrong message that playing these unorganized games or even some form of reasonably organized sports is dangerous and generally speaking that’s not true,” said Dr. Mark Tremblay, chief scientist at Healthy Active Living Kids Canada. “The health benefits far exceed the risks associated with them.”

Activities like playing with balls help children learn co-ordination, teamwork and how to manage risks. The ban on schoolyard sports is part of a broader issue of parents and educators who try to keep children out of harm’s way — by not letting them walk to school or play in the park alone — but end up encouraging sedentary habits that put children at greater risk of serious health issues, such as diabetes, decades later.

“It’s all couched in with this overparenting phenomenon, which is rooted in the best intentions of parents trying to eliminate risk for their kids,” he said. “But I don’t think it prepares our kids for the real world and it accelerates more health problems that we’re not paying attention to that are slower and more insidious than a black eye from a ball.”
We photographed a Junior B hockey team the other night, team & individuals. Arrangements had been made in advance with the president of the figure skating club who had the ice prior to the hockey team. We were to move our gear down to one corner of the sheet & start assembling lights, stands, modifiers, etc. Minutes into this, one parent came careening down the ice with panic in her eyes, exclaiming how dangerous this was for her daughter and that she, personally, had not been informed about any of this. I explained clearly to her that as she wasn't the president or one of the coaches, she didn't rate an explanation. If she had questions, she could speak to one of them as I had a job to do.

What I didn't ask her was the wisdom of allowing her daughter to skate on obviously very slippery ice with no head or other protective gear for the last 8 years she had been in figure skating. I believe the irony would have been lost on her anyway.

The pussification continues...
 
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#5 ·
Sometimes I think the helmets and bubble wrap are counter productive. I've noticed that kids now have a field of vision that extends about 3 feet directly in front of their nose. Anything that's half a degree or more off axis and it is invisible to them. They have come to believe they do not have to be aware of their surroundings, because Mommy protects them. Pretty sure this is going to bite them in the 455 as they get older.
 
#3 ·
The way things are going, children aren't going to be allowed out to play at all soon. As a parent, I find so much of what passes for "safety" to be nothing more than an overzealous bunch of lawyers trying to protect every organization from potential lawsuits from people who refuse to take any responsibility whatsoever for themselves.

It makes me sick. :mad:

Between the above, and the continued efforts by the media to make parents into a bunch of frightened, paranoid, crazy people who make their children absolutely helpless in their zeal to protect them from all manner of imaginary dangers, I fear for the ability of the current generation to survive without the helicoptering Mummy and Daddy.

Yes, our children are precious. But no, they don't need to be protected from EVERY single potential danger in the world - and certainly not from tennis balls and soccer balls! I find the story about the parent who got the concussion from the soccer ball (really??? I've had 2 boys playing soccer for the last 15 years and I don't know of a single kid who's had a concussion or head injury - including in the upper levels where heading the ball is allowed) somewhat fishy, and at the very least, a very rare, isolated incident, hardly worthy of causing a ban on all "hard" ball playing.
 
#4 ·
Your arguments are valid but you obviously don't understand the nature of "concussive" injuries. Doesn't take much and sometimes it's just an absolute fluke. Your arguments would be best served by leaving out comments like this.

As an aside, if you have kids actively envolved in sport you should be making yourself aware of the dangers of concussive injuries and see that your kids are baseline tested in the event of a potentially damaging injury. Organizations like Think Headfirst have programs in place for many different sport organizations.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Macified, I'm well aware of concussive injuries - and the dangers of them. I am not trying to minimize those - I'd be an idiot if I was. I still say that a parent getting hit by a soccer ball in a playground and getting a concussion is an incredibly rare fluke and not reason enough for this ridiculous ban.

As for my children and the lack of head injuries in their soccer leagues from being hit on the head with soccer balls - I'm only reporting what I've seen over the past 15 years. It has not been an issue. (Nor is it a significant one statistically - players are far more likely to get a concussion in soccer from running into each other than getting bopped on the head by a ball, or heading the ball).

I fully support the wearing of helmets by ALL people playing sports where the risk of head injury/concussion is high. That's just common sense and is not overprotecting our kids (or adults). My husband, who bikes to work about 8 months of the year has been hit by cars at least twice where wearing his helmet no doubt protected his head from serious injury. A good friend in Ottawa was recently hit broadside by a car doing 60 kmh and survived with relatively minor injuries - again because he was wearing a helmet.

We owe it to our children to teach them to operate safely in this world - but we cannot do that if we do everything for them (drive them everywhere, never let them take public transit and get slightly lost and learn to figure things out etc.) and try to protect them from every conceivable danger.

Common sense seems to be in short supply these days.
 
#7 ·
I will call bullsh$$ on the concussion from the ball to the head. Please give me a break. People can over react to injuries for any number of reasons. Lawsuits?

Is there high school football and hockey anymore or is that to dangerous. Accidents happen and some are more serious then others but they just happen.
 
#8 ·
But how are you going to learn to not get hurt if you don't get exposed to it? I mean this whole overprotective politically correct etc mindset that is becoming ever more invasive and in your face about things is well crazy! I'd use another word thats a lot more in common with bullshirt... but without a letter.. but that might not be politically correct or child friendly so I'll refrain from such language.

Really... why don't they ban pens, pencils, paint, brushes, rulers, stencils, geometry sets from school while there at it? At one point or another we've all got paper cuts, or herd of some moron who stabbed someone with a pen; or what about that toxic paint? If poor little Johnny (or again maybe i should choose a more ethnic name to be more inclusive....) little D'John were to get some paint on his hand, then lick it... it might be bad for him!! Oh no!

I realize that I'm being a little sarcastic here.. but my point is that by removing every single little danger or hazard from schools; were just desensitizing the children and putting them in a position where they won't be able to function as independent adults. Its time to step back and cut that umbilical cord people!
 
#9 ·
But how are you going to learn to not get hurt if you don't get exposed to it? I mean this whole overprotective politically correct etc mindset that is becoming ever more invasive and in your face about things is well crazy! I'd use another word thats a lot more in common with bullshirt... but without a letter.. but that might not be politically correct or child friendly so I'll refrain from such language.

Really... why don't they ban pens, pencils, paint, brushes, rulers, stencils, geometry sets from school while there at it? At one point or another we've all got paper cuts, or herd of some moron who stabbed someone with a pen; or what about that toxic paint? If poor little Johnny (or again maybe i should choose a more ethnic name to be more inclusive....) little D'John were to get some paint on his hand, then lick it... it might be bad for him!! Oh no!

I realize that I'm being a little sarcastic here.. but my point is that by removing every single little range from schools; were just desensitizing the children and putting them in a position where they won't be able to function as independent adults. Its time to step back and cut that umbilical cord people!
Ageed. It comes from the same thoughts of not failing a child because of bad grades. Keep them in a bubble. Just pat them on the back and send them on their way and say go be with your friends so you can play rather than learn even though chances are you will not see those people past grade school or even high school.

You have to know failure so you now what success is.

So if a hit in the head or a broken bone is failure you learned something, you know very well not to do that again.
 
#10 ·
Just as an example... I remember spraining my thumb playing basketball in grade school.. It didn't stop me from playing for long... Afterwards i learnt how to correctly catch the ball. Or when I burnt my finger touching a hot light bulb or something like that... I learnt hmm maybe if theres heat coming off of it; it might be hot. Better be careful.

At the same time though I'm not saying that children should be aloud to run crazy all over the place. A certain amount of supervision is required. And at a certain age the child will become responsible enough to be given more freedom. Also older sibling taking younger ones to a park isn't a bad idea... as long as the older ones aren't to busy texting or something.

I remember George Carlin had a good routine about this! Again its not very family friendly in content or language.. but I think it would fit into this whole thread rather nicely lmao!
 
#11 ·
Let the nanny state protect your children from deadly evil sporting balls because you can't and are not allowed.

Just like you can't and are not allowed to protect your children in your very own home by securing it with what's considered fortifications under penalty of law.

I so can't wait to get the hell out of this town to my 4 acres of "shangri-la".:D

As my friend from Alberta has indicated..."the pussification continues"
 
#12 ·
I have an old coffee cup, purchased when I was still in university, with a bunch of computer programming quips printed on it. My favorite has always been: "If builders built buildings the way programmers build programs, the first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization."

I'm honestly afraid that's what's going to happen to the offspring of overprotective parents. They're going to fold like a house of cards the first time they meet adversity...
 
#15 ·
Oh! I thought the discussion was regarding the tenaciousness of Torontonians. Never mind.
 
#24 ·
well they're banning them. They're saying, you're not allowed, to use those.

It's still nanny state sinc. It just depends on whether you support it or not. The nanny state comes in handy when it does what what group wants.

So all this nanny state whining is just that, whining.
 
#25 ·
balls?

Y'all should c'mon down to Edmontonchuk. Our city council and Mayor Spendel (sorry, Mandel) as part of a mandated spend 1% on artwork for every city project (left over from Mayor Reimer's turn in office) just spent $600,000 on something called the Talus stack or pile (just google it). It's basically a stack of silver balls on the side of a busy road. so, like I said, c'mon down, we got a stack of 'em. I agree with what's being said here
you can only protect those "precious snowflakes" so far, helicopter parents not-withstanding. What are you gonna do, wrap everything in bubble wrap, and stick the kids in a ball, like a hamster? We're worried about gettin' em out of the house to play, yet we tell 'em, oh sorry, no balls, no sticks, no climbing trees, cuz someone might get hurt. Oh Noes ! won't someone think of "The Children". Wait until they get out into the real world and reality smacks 'em on the boo-boo. wait until they find out they're not the center of the universe.Hopefully I won't be around to see that, and hopefully this ban goes bye-bye.

John B
 
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