trx1
10-26-2006, 08:10 AM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two Massachusetts primary schools this week joined a growing list of US schools that have banned the age-old game of tag for fear that children may get hurt and their parents will sue.
Officials at McCarthy Elementary School in Framingham in the northeastern state, told local media that children have been ordered to invent a new no-contact version of the game for safety reasons.
"If the hands come out to touch, then the supervisors ask them to stop," McCarthy principal Joan Vodoklys was quoted as saying in the Boston Herald on Friday. "What we require is that children do not touch each other."
Gaylene Heppe, the principal at Willett Elementary School also in Massachusetts, said she had approved the ban on the classic playground game out of fear that accidents could happen.
The ban at Willet covers other contact sports such as touch football, another non- or low-contact game standard at US primary and secondary schools only a few years ago.
Elementary schools in the states of Wyoming and Washington have also recently banned tag during recess, in fear that possible injuries could leave the schools legally liable.
Tag, also called "it," "had" and other names, involves one or more players attempting to "tag" others by touching them with their hands, passing on the duty to chase another down and tag them.
Officials at McCarthy Elementary School in Framingham in the northeastern state, told local media that children have been ordered to invent a new no-contact version of the game for safety reasons.
"If the hands come out to touch, then the supervisors ask them to stop," McCarthy principal Joan Vodoklys was quoted as saying in the Boston Herald on Friday. "What we require is that children do not touch each other."
Gaylene Heppe, the principal at Willett Elementary School also in Massachusetts, said she had approved the ban on the classic playground game out of fear that accidents could happen.
The ban at Willet covers other contact sports such as touch football, another non- or low-contact game standard at US primary and secondary schools only a few years ago.
Elementary schools in the states of Wyoming and Washington have also recently banned tag during recess, in fear that possible injuries could leave the schools legally liable.
Tag, also called "it," "had" and other names, involves one or more players attempting to "tag" others by touching them with their hands, passing on the duty to chase another down and tag them.