Lanikai Elementary School, Lanikai Hawaii

Lanikai Elementary School - Built in Shade

Centipedes for Playmates?

There's a lot of obvious precautions we can take to make our island playgrounds safer. Some of these include installing the safe and well designed playground equipment, making certain that our play areas have well trained supervisors, and scheduling regular inspections by certified professionals.

Some precautions are not so obvious and controlling harmful insects is likely one of those that didn't likely make your top ten list. The problem is two fold: Not only are our children more vulnerable to insect bites and stings but they generally born no fear of them. For this reason, the Hawaiian Centipede is the last playmate you want your child to share the playground with.

Hawaiian Centipede


Centipedes are found in dark, moist areas that harbor very small bugs and spiders. A playground with woodchips (or wood fiber) installed as a safety surface is a perfect example such an environment. The wood underneath the surface never dry out completely and entry to the area can come from the surrounding grass, a nearby bush, or tree.

So you do know a child that plays in one of these playgrounds? The first thought when you see small bugs, spiders, and especially centipedes is to extinguish those bad bugs! Call a pest control company! Run down to City Mill and clean out the pest control chemicals! Pour Borax around the border of the playground! These are all usually good first steps, except for one very important detail. Our children play there and none of the standard remedies for insect infestation are safe for a playground. We do not want any these chemicals within miles of where our children play. If bugs have made your playground a home, there's very little you can do and maintain a safe chemical free play area.

While I am not qualified to assist you on declaring a war on centipedes, I can tell you from my personal experience that the best defense is not an offense at all. It's good planning and research of what is available to surface your playground and gaining the understanding that just because a product is sold nationally at great volume and meets the requirements for some federal laws doesn't mean that it is the best choice for you in Hawaii. Our office gets regular phone calls asking for the removal of woodchips from playgrounds and we'll always nicely inquire how the decision was made to install the woodchips in the first place. If the person is still around (and not in a boiling pot somewhere) we mainly hear three reasons.

1. The salesmen told me that the chips will repels bugs or the chips are made of 100% cedar.
2. It was cheaper than other surfacing options.
3. Our playground is subject to state and federal law and we needed to meet ADA requirements.

Number one is simply a question of ethics. Even if the chips were all cedar, any wood will decompose and mix with the soil and other organic materials that will get into our playgrounds. Eventually a a food source for centipedes is created and the longer the wood is there, the better it will become. It is my understanding that all wood chip products are made from all types of scrap lumber and not 100% cedar as is the common claim. I checked the specifications of the most common brand of woodchips sold in Hawaii and the "type" of wood used is suspiciously missing. Buyer beware.
http://www.engineeredwoodfiber.com/playground/specifications_general.html

Number two depends on how you define cost. The initial material and installation costs of woodchips is cheaper than other surfacing products. It is important to remember that only the "installed price" is cheaper and that the maintenance and ongoing replenishment and maintenance costs are very high for woodchips and much lower for other products. So in the life of your playground, you might be surprised what you actually end up paying for a woodchip surface.

Number three is a true legal advantage that woodchips have over other loose fill surfaces such as sand or pea gravel. Like unitary and some loose fill rubber surfaces, woodchips are considered accessible and compliant with current ADA law. I share a common belief among many playground professionals that woodchip surfacing only is able to maintain this rating because of their strong lobby in Washington and the involvement of the major woodchip manufacturers in passing the legislation in the first place. I encourage anyone curious about this to do their own field test. Go out and actually try to navigate a wheelchair through woodchips that have just been installed and you will see what I mean. I think your results will be the same as ours; only in a very compacted (hard) state where the chips are moist or very packed down (remember this is a safety surface designed to protect your child from falls) from heavy use can a wheelchair navigate over a woodchip surface.

Here's a link to the Bishop Museum's website and a little more about centipedes in Hawaii. If you look around on the Internet, you'll find that centipedes can be a very emotional topic for some.

http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/good-bad/centipede-full.html

Here's some good information about non-toxic controlling of centipedes. See if you get chicken skin like I did when you read about the catch and release method!

http://www.beyondpesticides.org/alternatives/factsheets/CENTIPEDE%20CONTROL.pdf

In closing, our children are born with a wonderful but potentially dangerous blind trust. Teach them to "look before they play" and make it your personal responsibility to help them know what to look for.

Ocean Pointe, Ewa Beach Hawaii

Ocean Pointe Playground

ADA and Hawaii Playgrounds

I was going to sit down and write a glowing report about all the playgrounds in Hawaii's schools and parks that have been designed with children with special needs in mind. Except I can't. It's not because I can't find the words it is because they don't exist.

All playground that are built in Hawaii today have to comply wtih ADA law and there's plenty of -compliant- playgrounds out there. What is important to understand about the way playground ADA law is written that you can be 100% compliant with ADA law and not provide one functional play component.

From the ADA:

The other requirements for play components are provided to promote general usability, with application to a variety of play components. Additional features will assist in making play components more accessible to more children.

After close examination of the way the people building our public schools and parks in Hawaii, "additional features" have taken a backseat to cost and ease of installation. Everywhere you look you see playground designs with the minimum ground level components installed. These components are generally the lowest cost and usually the least functional. They meet the law but are pretty much useless when it comes to function. If you are interested in knowing more about ADA law, here's a good link:

http://www.access-board.gov/news/playguide.htm

I do have good news to report, however. All is not lost and soon Hawaii will get to see first hand the difference between compliance and function. It is my understanding that Central Maui Park has such a park on the drawing boards right now being designed by Boundless Playgrounds, a design group that specializes is type of park. You can visit them here and see some of their work.

http://www.boundlessplaygrounds.org/.

Until that happens, I can only offer you articles written about other far away places who seem to be building their playrounds with a concience and have realized that play is important to ALL children.

New Playground Design Makes Play More Accessible
November 19, 2004


What do you get when you combine a traditional playground with the concept of universal design? A park that just about any child would be thrilled and able to play in, and possibly one of the most popular parks in Logan, Utah.
The playground, housed in Logan’s Willow West Park, is called Angels’ Landing, and it’s being designed specifically for accessibility by landscape architects from Utah State University’s Center for Persons with Disabilities. The goal: to let children of all abilities play in a place that is able to safely accommodate them.
"The simplest way to explain it is: We don't worry as much about the wheelchair or the device the child is using. We spend more time thinking about the child and what they are able, and would like, to do. It's activity focused, instead of equipment focused," said Keith Christensen, one of the architects working on the project, in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune.
Rather than a traditional playground that focuses on climbing, the architects are creating a place that they say will highlight “exploratory and creative play.” Gone are the jungle gyms and swing sets; in their place are playhouses, musical instruments, buckets, shovels, and other interactive objects – all easily reached and maneuvered by children of any ability. Instead of modifying existing ideas and concepts, this group is starting from scratch on its playground with the ergonomic approach of designing for the users’ abilities.
In the United States, the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) requires that all new and altered playgrounds be accessible and usable by people with disabilities. According to the National Center on Accessibility (NCA), the ADA guidelines cover some of the basics regarding the size and scope of playgrounds, but the group also offers its own design recommendations on making a playground truly accessible. Included in the NCA’s suggestions are appropriate seat or entry height for swings and slides, the amount of maneuvering space that should be around a playground component and guidelines regarding accessible routes and surfaces.
But at the Logan park, as well as two others the group has designed, the goal is a little different: "We make sure that everything is accessible and usable. We want it to be a fun place for every child so we aren't segregating children with disabilities to one area,” Christensen said.
But can a playground without swings, slides and all of the other traditional equipment be considered any fun? If public use means anything, then the answer is yes. At a similar playground the group designed, a representative noted that it’s so full of kids having fun “you can hardly get in there.”
Plus there may be another benefit to a more accessible playground – improved safety. Annually, over 200,000 children go to the emergency room as the result of accidents involving playground equipment. More specifically, climbing equipment like jungle gyms account for the greatest percentage of injuries for all children, regardless of age. Coming in a close second for children ages 0 through 4 are slides, and for children between the ages of 5 and 14 are swings.
Sources: Salt Lake Tribune; National Center on Accessibility; The National Program for Playground Safety
-- Jeanie Croasmun

Playground Safety in Canada: Preventative, Proactive, Progressive

It's my sincere hope that someday we will address playground safety like this in Hawaii. This is a health organization in Canada who has recognized the benefits of injury prevention.

Health unit investing in playground safety
November 17, 2004

By Melanie Béchard

The Northwestern Health Unit has hired a certified playground equipment inspector to look at playgrounds belonging to municipalities, school boards, and day care centres across the region. “We’re really excited about it,” said Paula Sanders, a health promoter in injury prevention with the health unit. “We think it’s a really important project.” The health unit had some funding earmarked for injury reduction in children and spoke to some organizations about how best to put that money to use. “One thing some people in the recreation field identified were playgrounds,” noted Alan Howie, chair of the Ontario Sunset Country Recreation Association as well as manager of community services for Sioux Lookout. “Playgrounds have come under a lot of reviews with CSA [Canadian Standard Association] standards,” he added. “There’s been a lot of discussion over the last number of years, not just in Northwestern Ontario but across the country, about these standards and a number of communities removed hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of playgrounds.” Here in Fort Frances, for instance, the town removed all equipment from the Phair Avenue park in July, as well as removed some equipment from the Front Street and Lillie Avenue parks. A swing set at the Legion park was replaced with a newer model compliant with CSA standards. The inspections are a continuation of other initiatives by the health unit to improve playground safety. “The health unit over the last couple of years has assisted communities in funding their staff to go to playground safety training programs and become certified so they can help review and assess current situations and look at future developments in playgrounds,” Howie noted. Injuries from playground equipment is not uncommon in Canada. Safe Kids Canada reports there have been 18 playground deaths across the country since 1982. Seventeen of them were due to strangulation, such as when loose clothing gets caught on equipment, while the other was due to a head fracture. More than 28,500 children are treated annually in emergency departments and hospitals across Canada for playground-related injuries, including fractures, spinal injuries, and concussion. Almost 70 percent of non-fatal playground injuries are caused by falls. Once the decision was made to go ahead with the project, the Northwestern Health Unit contacted area municipalities, school boards, and day care centres to ask if they wanted to participate. Many did and Peter Kells, the certified playground inspector hired by the health unit, is visiting about 50 playgrounds throughout Northwestern Ontario this fall. He was in Fort Frances last month inspecting ground surfaces under the equipment before the ground froze. On Monday morning, he was inspecting the equipment at Robert Moore School here and explained some of the things he looks for. For instance, Kells tests the surface under playground equipment—usually sand—to determine how soft it is. Some materials are better at dissipating the blow from an impact, reducing the likelihood of head injury. Kells said he also checks for how much area is covered with sand around each piece of equipment. He uses plastic gauges to make sure there are no head entrapments, where a child’s head or neck could become caught and cause strangulation. Kells also checks for any pieces that stick out that could puncture the skin or cause internal bleeding, and ensures barriers are at the right height. In his written report, Kells said he uses a hazard rating system to identify high- and low-risk equipment. “It’s not an exact tool. It’s more of a judgment tool. It’s subjective,” he noted. Kells stressed he does not consider himself “the playground police.” He has no authority to enforce the CSA standards. In fact, there is no legislation to enforce them. They are voluntary standards, but ones which insurance companies and the courts often use as a benchmark. “The CSA standard has become the minimum measure,” he said. “But the CSA standard is not just about injury prevention. It’s about striking a balance between injury prevention and play opportunity for children. “At the end of the day, you’re not building playgrounds for lawyers. “I’m not here as playground police. I give information to help organizations make decisions and set priorities,” Kells added. “It’s all about trying to create positive play opportunities for children.” Following his inspections, Kells will submit a written report of his findings to the Northwestern Health Unit. But this won’t necessarily result in widespread changes. “Nobody ever has enough money to do everything they want to do,” he noted. The individual municipalities, school boards, and day care centres will have to decide—based on their programming—which issues they want to address first.

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.

Kamehameha School, Honolulu Hawaii

Kamehameha Main Campus Playground, Honolulu Hawaii

If you have Quicktime installed on your computer, you can take a virtual tour of this playground here: http://www.ksbe.edu/kstour/kapalama/kapalama01.html
http://www.ksbe.edu/kstour/kapalama/kapalama01.html

Kamehameha School, Honolulu Hawaii

Kamehameha Elementary Play Area