Playground Safety: Can we be too safe?

When I read the article below, I said to myself, "this is a playground safety advocate's worst nightmare."

Well thought out playground rules are a necessity from both a safety and liability standpoint but they can reach a point of diminishing return in some extreme cases. A playground should be a place where our children feel they have the flexibility to test their physical limitations while learning respect for rules that they must abide by.

The news story below illustrates why we should examine each rule we make on the playground before we incorporate it into our safety plan. It's important that both parents and children understand the merit for each rule and respect the real danger of not following them.

School discipline gone crazy:
girl suspended for doing cartwheels during recess

Girl suspended for doing cartwheels.
Source: http://www.local6.com/news/3913357/detail.html


An 11-year-old girl in West Covina, Calif., was suspended from her school from doing "dangerous" cartwheels and hand stands during lunch time, according to a Local 6 News report.
Deirdre Faegre, who is a Student of the Month at San Jose-Edison Academy in West Covina was dismissed from the school this week after school authorities warned her for the last time to stop doing gymnastic stunts during lunchtime.

Administrators at the school said they were concerned about safety of their students.
They said gymnastics on the playground creates an unsafe situation.

"I thought they were absolutely weird, because I see other kids playing baseball and soccer and I think that's more dangerous than gymnastics," Faegre said.

Deirdre's parents are giving the school's actions a failing grade.
The family says they'll continue to stand by their daughter.
"I don't think they care about the children at all," father Leland Faegre said.
"What sort of a parent or administrator would ever enforce a rule that would proscribe a child from using her arms and her legs?
We have got to fix this mess because we have to let children be children."
Her parents said they will home school Deirdre until they find a more "reasonable" school.