Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Tag, you’re out

The game, that is: “Officials at the Willett Elementary School in Attleboro [southwest of Boston] have banned playground tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chasing games over concerns about the risk of injury and liability for the school.” (“Attleboro elementary school bans tag”, AP/Boston Globe, Oct. 18)(more on lawsuit-fearing fun-busters).

The game, that is: “Officials at the Willett Elementary School in Attleboro [southwest of Boston] have banned playground tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chasing games over concerns about the risk of injury and liability for the school.” (“Attleboro elementary school bans tag”, AP/Boston Globe, Oct. 18)(more on lawsuit-fearing fun-busters).

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9 Comments

  • Let the kids exercise, much less teach them to exercise, egads no!
    Let them sit quietly during recess, slowly accumulating coronary plaques, pounds, and dull mental processes.

    • By nevins

  • Parents’ and teachers’ rights are being undermined by ridiculous lawsuits and the stupid judges who entertain them. This has to stop- parents need to start parenting and stand up for ridiculous stuff like this!

  • In elementary school we used to play kick the can with any old rusted can we could find. Lot’s of cuts and scrapes. No Tetanus though. And no one lost an eye!

    • By jon

  • Species Averageus Americanus will no doubt cluck over this, but the same species has been observed to react, while sitting on a jury for the case of an injured student (and with same corn-pone reasoning), “Well, they shouldn’t have had kids running around like that! It’s dangerous! We think the school should pay. After all, it’s rich, and Timmy is hurt.”

    Power to the people!

  • If it’s too dangerous for a school playground then logically it’s too dangerous for any playground. Wait for it…

    • By ras

  • Imagine the crippling social ostracism of being the kid who was “it” at the moment that tag was banned… condemned to permanent it-ness with no hope of release.

  • Don’t worry. The “It” kid will be okay. The game of tag will just move underground; clandestine games played while the teacher isn’t watching. Of course, it’ll be hugely expensive to play and they’ll have to rob and steal to get the money, but the game will go on. Soon they’ll have “Tag” addiction recovery centers and there will be a “Just Say No to Tag” campaign promoted by the president’s wife…after all, Tag can cause serious injury or even death!

    • By Jeff

  • “The President announced today that America is going to War on Tag. “You’re either with us, or you’re It,” she said at a press conference in the Rose Garden. At that moment, just across the street in Lafeyette Park, District Police arrested 12 youths who were “carrying on in a Tag-like manner” according to witnesses.

    • By LAN3

  • I predict that this unilateral move by the school principal will be reversed by the school committee within a month.