Welcome to Colorado--The Nanny State

Can someone help me out here? Does anyone else remember how, as a child, we could run around, and have recess, and fall down, and get scrapes and bumps and bruises, and skinned knees? And our parents didn't have to sign a release form allowing us to play hopscotch lest we fell down, got a boo-boo and had to be rushed to the ER. That was part of being a kid! falling down, and learning how to deal with pain!

It's bad enough kids these days can't play dodgeball because some kids are better than others, and that hurts theiw widdow feewins. But now, to up the ante in the game of "Who can be more of a ninny?", a school in Colorado has banned children from playing "Tag" (via My FOX Colorado):

A Colorado Springs elementary school is banning the game of tag on its playground -- after some children complained that they'd been chased or harassed against their will.

Assistant Principal Cindy Fesgen of the Discovery Canyon Campus school says running games will be allowed, as long as students don't chase each other.

Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban, but most parents and children didn't object.

Two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in 2005 in favor of alternatives with less physical contact.

School officials say that encouraged more students to play games, and helped reduce playground squabbles.

That's right. We wouldn't want children to learn how to handle things like "playground squabbles" on their own, or have to go through the gut-wrenching emotional torment and existential crises caused by "playground squabbles". After all, that's what therapists are for. And they have to eat too, ya know.

Let me clue these folks in on something. Last year, I worked with a daycare's summer program, which included 1st thru 6th graders. Do you know what the kids in 4th-6th wanted to play? Balltag. It's kinda like a cross between baseball and dodgeball. They'd sling the ball at each other, and sometimes you could hear the "tang" sound really well. But dod they ever cry? No. They CHOSE to do it, and they had fun.

These people need to let these kids run around, chase each other, and learn how to be kids, and how to work out some of their own problems without adults coming and riding to the rescue and sheltering them from life, and teaching them that every time something happens, someone is going to fix it for them. Because as they grow up--and when they get into adulthood--they're going to expect that.