[NEWYORK.CBSLOCAL] Worries about injuries at a Long Island school have led to a surprising ban. As CBS 2's Jennifer McLogan reported Monday, officials at Weber Middle School in Port Washington are worried that students are getting hurt during recess. Thus, they have instituted a ban on footballs, baseballs, lacrosse balls, or anything that might hurt someone on school grounds.Did you just hear Jack London turn over in his grave?
Tossing a football during recess has long seemed to be a rite of passage for kids in the school community. "I think we need the soccer balls, the footballs and everything, so we can have some fun," one student said.
The ghost of Jim Bridger just snorted and stalked off to shoot the ghost of something on the endangered species list.
But the students will have no such option anymore. They were just informed that during recess, football is out and Nerf ball is in. Hard soccer balls have been banned, along with baseballs and lacrosse balls, rough games of tag, or cartwheels unless supervised by a coach.
I can remember Bonnie Funk turning cartwheels on the asphalt playground at our elementary school. We were in first grade. Girls did stuff like that in 1953. That was before they became empowered.
Students were not thrilled about the news.
No!... Re-e-e-e-eally?
"Cartwheels and tag -- I think it's ridiculous they are banning that," one said.
Entirely too physical. Better to organize the students to write letters to their congresscritters supporting Nobamacare."You go for recess -- that's your free time to go let loose and recharge," another said.
Back in my day, we had our fist fights outside, in the play yard, not in the classroom.
"That's all we want to do," a third student said. "We're in school all day sitting behind the desk learning."
"And not even much of that!"
But Port Washington schools Supt. Kathleen Maloney said the change in policy is warranted due to a rash of playground injuries.
"Injuries, by Gawd! Blood! We've been applying bandaids like they're going out of style!"
"Some of these injuries can unintentionally become very serious, so we want to make sure our children have fun, but are also protected," Maloney said.
Wusses. I didn't even know knees were supposed to have skin on them until I hit puberty.