Toronto School Bans Hard Balls 319
In an attempt to finally "think of the children," Earl Beatty Public school has prohibited students from playing with balls after a "few serious incidents" in which students and staff were hit or almost hit by balls. From the article: "The happy days of kicking a ball around at recess ended Monday after students took home a letter advising that henceforth, no child could bring a soccer ball, football, volleyball or even tennis ball to the junior and senior school in the area of Coxwell and Danforth Aves." I assume all lunches will soon be taken via feeding tube to minimize choking hazards.
Well... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:This is why socialism doesn't work (Score:4, Insightful)
I call bullshit, you are a passive aggressive American who wants to paint socialism in a shitty light. This has nothing to do with Canada's economy.
Re:What next? (Score:5, Insightful)
So you are agreeing that banning pencils is a good idea? I hope not. Once we eliminate all risks in life, we eliminate all rewards as well.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the days where there are lawsuit trolls roaming the earth trying to turn any mishap into $$$, I can't really blame them.
Of course, take it out on the kids instead of the lawyers or politicians that allow the lawyers to conduct business as they do.
Re:What next? (Score:3, Insightful)
Vote out the school board!! (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't like crap like this, get yourself or someone you trust on the school board. It can't be that hard!
The general voting public ignores local politics, which is much more important for day to day life.
What about rocks? (Score:5, Insightful)
Rocks are not balls and you can still play catch, baseball, hockey, etc. with them.
Solution: Helmets for wimpy parents (Score:5, Insightful)
..the most serious injury at the school to date involved a parent, who was hit in the head by a soccer ball and suffered a concussion.
If that parent can suffer a concussion from a soccer ball kicked by a kid then they need to wear a helmet whenever they leave the house. Don't punish everybody else for having a skull made out of jello.
Re:What next? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, no, you don't understand. Schools in the US "socialize" children in such a way that they will support "team sport" both as children and later as adults, which in turn pushes revenue to the town businesses when other teams come to town for competitions. The businesses, in turn, "rah rah" like crazy, perhaps even buy some uniforms for the kids. It's entirely financial. As far as injuries go, that's ok as long as the team can still play. My ex-wife, a surgeon, dealt with spleen and bone injuries on a regular basis from the local sports programs. A couple of real bad spinal injuries as well over the course of a decade. Trashed immune system? Broken growth plates? Destroyed knee? No problem! And it's always interesting to hear a coach tell the kids to really get in there and injure the opposition (or, in one case I know of, the opposing JV team.) "Gotta practice like you play, kids!"
If government has a legitimate role here, it is educating kids. Reading, writing, math, history, civics, science, and so on. Not "sports." Kids should be done with school early and then, if they want sport, they should go to a private club or other entity that does the sport in question. School sports -- from taxpayer funded playing fields to the huge busses that carry the teams around -- are a huge misuse of tax money, and clear-headed parents don't support them in any way.
There's another issue as well, and that is bullying/lording; kids in sports are inevitably given leeway and options that kids not in sports do not receive, and along with the whole snotty "I'm a football player / cheerleader and you're not" comes mistreatment and isolation. And don't even get me started on "sports scholarships" -- the very idea is a contradiction in terms. There's nothing "scholarly" about school sports at all. It's about money.
It's bad enough that kids naturally aren't on an equal footing intelligence wise; that's something we have to deal with because they have to be educated anyway. There's no need to add an entirely superfluous level of ostracizing to the kid's lives.
The small town I live in is saturated to the gills with child sports-related nonsense. It's a crying shame.
Re:No ball jokes in the comments. (Score:5, Insightful)
No way. Last time [slashdot.org] I got yelled at.
Re:What next? (Score:4, Insightful)
A pen?
The larger question is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why is this relevant news to this site? Has /. become Fark?
This is also an elementary school in the middle of Toronto. It has limited yard space, and hence, not much room for kids to share a relatively small space.