School Districts Getting Rid of 'Dangerous' Swings, Merry-go-rounds also

[Liberal_in_LA]

School Districts Getting Rid of 'Dangerous' Swings

'It's a matter of liability,' Washington district says
Swingsets are becoming a thing of the past at school playgrounds in a Washington state school district because insurance companies have decided they're too hazardous. "It's just really a safety issue; swings have been determined to be the most unsafe of all the equipment on a playground," a spokesman for Richland School District in the Tri-Cities area tells KEPR, which notes that some 200,000 emergency room visits happen across the country every year after playground accidents—and that most swing injuries happen when unwary children walk behind or in front of a moving swing.

The school district says the swings are being phased out after pressure from insurance companies. Some parents have objected to the move, which isn't unique to the district: Neighboring school districts have also been getting rid of swingsets and other "risky" playground equipment like merry-go-rounds in recent years. "I don't necessarily disagree with the parents [who want swings]. I grew up with them," the Richland district's executive director of support services tells the Tri-City Herald. "But it's a matter of liability."


-------------

First they came for the merry-go-rounds. Then the monkey bars disappeared. Now, the swings are on their way out.

When Badger Mountain and Tapteal elementary students arrived for school this fall they discovered that the schools no longer have swing sets.

Richland School District officials had them replaced this summer, and some parents aren’t happy about it.

But the phasing out of swings and other traditional playground fixtures isn’t new. Kennewick schools don’t have them and Pasco removed them from their school playgrounds more than 20 years ago. The reason? Mostly because of the risk of students being hurt.

“I don’t necessarily disagree with the parents (who want swings). I grew up with them,” said Mark Panther, Richland’s executive director of support services. “But it’s a matter of liability.”

Richland has been gradually removing swing sets for more than a decade, he said.

Districts are required to have certified staff inspect playgrounds and determine any possible risks the equipment can pose to children.

That’s led school officials to remove metal objects, which can have sharp edges or become too hot in the sun, or anything that moves with a child and can lead to a fall, such as swings and merry-go-rounds.

Read more here: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2014/10/02/3183360_richland-schools-removing-swings.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. And then there are complaints that our children aren't active enough.

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. yes, I didn't grow up with a swingset at home, if it wasn't for the one at the playground

I would have never learned to swing.

[LiberalElite]

3. Life leads to death. nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. yep. here is the type we played on in the late 60s / early 70s

[Travis_0004]

21. Those can be dangerous

At least they are when you are 19, and use a motorcycle to spin it around. . . . Good times.

[kimbutgar]

26. I used to love these as a kid

But I got a nasty bruise from one.

Maybe all these type of things makes one fearless instead of being a republican wimp.

[With whom]

52. In so many ways we lived during the best times this country ever provided.

It is an awful feeling looking at the world through the eyes of todays youngsters.

So much freedom is gone.

Consequences of mistakes are high.

Secrecy and privacy are extinct.

Perpetual war against races and beliefs.

- need to stop before I bum myself out -

[Jim Beard]

54. There has to be ways to learn limits

to almost everything. We have to suffer some degree of burning before we understand what "hot" is.

[With whom]

59. Agreed. It begins with taking care of a newborn child in a positive way.

Teaching, counseling, directing, setting a good example, et al throughout the rearing years and continuing until death is a good start.

When it comes to the point where swings, slides, and merry go rounds are taken away it has gone too far. An option might be to enclose the swings within a gated fence. One child per swing allowed in. Follow the blue line to your swing, the yellow line goes to the next swing. Going outside the line generates the heat, but the heat does not need to be a conflagration.

[TBF]

55. There was always some moron who had to lick the metal

when it was below zero in Wisconsin ...

but other than those incidents we had a great time!

Obese children - no play equipment = even more obese children

[With whom]

71. Well, some of us morons were naive and intelligent.

The trick was for how long to make contact, sort of like cooking. Control of time and temperature. Now back to my stupid job where having people think I'm a moron is a benefit.

[savalez]

58. I loved those!!!!!

We used to spin them so fast that we felt as if were holding on for dear life.

[Liberal_in_LA]

95. remember this type of "swing" - the double swing

I forgot it even existed until I "googled" swingsets

[savalez]

97. Heck ya.

Why are those banned too?

[Oktober]

38. ... and before that it seems to lead to a lawsuit...

... and that is what they are trying to skip...

[Capt. Obvious]

4. I remember a kid in my elementary school getting his chin split

wide open by a swing. He was an identical twin so after that he had a massive scar and he and his brother were easy to tell apart.

[Volaris]

5. Tell me how I'm supposed to even attempt to raise a free-range kid,

If the range itself is considered too dangerous to be legal?
You know how I earned about solar heat energy? That's right. Metal playground equipment in summer.

[Capt. Obvious]

7. Just tie the kids to the tether ball pole

[TBF]

56. ^

[NightWatcher]

6. Raise your hand if you've ever been stabbed with a pencil or dropped a book on your foot

Is that the justification they are going to use for the continued underfunding of education?

School supplies are dangerous, let's have the little ones just sit in bean bag chairs all day long, get doughy, and stupid, because god forbid there be a law suit.

[KurtNYC]

72. You know those sci-fi films where people are just kind of floating in empty white rooms,

I am seeing how we get to that.

And "bean bag chairs" ?! You monster!...

http://www.wusa9.com/story/news/2014/08/26/bean-bag-chair-deaths-ace-bayou-corporation-recall/14609247/

[Arkansas Granny]

9. When the kids don't get recess, I suppose they don't need much equipment.

Elementary schools here have cut morning and afternoon recess. Students only get 15 minutes or so after lunch. Then they have to deal with kids with ADHD and weight problems. There's something wrong with this picture.

[Sopkoviak]

10. It's amazing that as many of us Boomers

Have survived to our 60's.

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. check out old style monkey bars. I wonder how we survived the 1970s. lol

[BuelahWitch]

19. Yep, monkey bars set on concrete

We had the same at our elementary school.

[PasadenaTrudy]

31. I remember

hanging by my knees from monkey bars over concrete. The horror

[sufrommich]

35. Monkey bars were my favorite. I remember blazing hot metal

slides on hot,sunny days too.How did we survive?

[gladium et scutum]

37. At Noon Recess

We would take the waxed paper our sandwiches were wrapped in and after eating go to the slide, sit on the waxed paper and slide down it. After a couple of kids did this, that slide was lightning fast.

[msanthrope]

74. Yes!!!! I'm the parent that brings the roll of wax paper to the playground! nt

[gladium et scutum]

82. Thank You for the Good Times. N/T

[Eleanors38]

36. Ours were "Jungle G(J)yms." We had very high swings

as well. Yes, some kids would knock their wind out, bust a lip, even break a wrist. But that was life. Hell, some played football!!

[pipi_k]

32. No shit, right?

We took aspirins, rode our bikes without helmets, rollerskated without helmets or knee/elbow pads, ate raw cookie dough and cake batter and our soaps didn't contain all kinds of strange sounding chemicals for killing germs.

There should be way fewer of us now, one would think

[hifiguy]

50. Ain't it the truth.

I fell off monkey bars, loved to jump off swings, plummeted down steep hills on my sled, rode my bike no-handed half the time - with no helmet, they were unheard of when I was that age - and never wound up with anything more than a few scratches, scrapes, and the odd bruise or two other than the time I fell off my bike and chipped a tooth. In those days that was called "part of being a kid."

If you don't learn the basics of not doing dumb shit as a kid you wind up doing REALLY stupid and dangerous "Jackass"-style shit when you get to your late teens and twenties. But that kind of dumb may be an effective method of culling the herd.

[TM99]

64. Hell, us Gen X'ers as well.

My younger sisters and I lived at the playground at the Lutheran church up the street from our home. It had all the fun and apparently now too dangerous equipment - swings, monkey bars, sand boxes, teeter-totters, etc.

It is damned tragic what is occurring today.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

11. You can't even have tether ball.

My of my retirement schemes was to open a museum of forbidden playground equipment. Wouldn't that be fun.

[Brickbat]

12. Don't blame the schools. Blame the insurance companies who bleat about "risk" and refuse coverage

for "dangerous" playgrounds.

[FLPanhandle]

25. No, blame the lawyers who sue the insurance companies

It's all about the legal liabilities from ambulance chasing lawyers.

[Jim Beard]

57. The insurance companies instill the "Fear of lawsuits" to gouge more money.

[johnp3907]

13. "We had a perfectly good playground."

When I was a kid our playground was the old condemned mine, the surrounding woods (complete with cliffs), and the sulfur creek where the copperheads liked to soak up the sun.

[3catwoman3]

15. I was born in 1951. My friends and I...

.spent hours on the school playground that was just down the street. Had one of us fallen off one of the pieces of equipment, it would never have occurred to our parents to hold the school liable.

[Jake Stern]

34. Back during my fabulous 80's childhood, I fell off the monkey bars

and ended up with a real good lump on my head and bruise on my face. My parents response wasn't to phone a lawyer. Instead they used it as a teaching moment. In fact I still remember my dad saying "Bet you're gonna be more careful next time, huh?"

Of course that's back when we had the old metal slides and metal merry-go-round that you were flung off of at least once at high speed. All of it set into concrete.

How did we ever survive?

[Kaleva]

16. The Giant Stride was one of my favorites

We could get that thing spinning really fast and we'd hang on for as long as we could till, one by one, we'd lose our grip and go flying off to a hard landing.

Here's a homemade example of a Giant Stride:

[MineralMan]

44. We had one of those at my elementary school.

Metal pole, asphalt playground surface. Lots of skinned knees for the school nurse to bandage. Still, we could fly!

Now, they're all gone, along with the school nurses. Sigh...

[Kaleva]

83. During winter, we made slides down the hill right behind the school

One day, a girl who went down one slide got a stick stuck into her thigh and she had to be brought to the hospital. None of the teachers or the principal put a stop to us using the slides and by next recess, we were all zipping down the hill once again.

[Liberal_in_LA]

88. never heard of such a thing

[likesmountains 52]

17. I love the irony that a teeter-totter is still the sign for a playground

but most of them were yanked out a long time ago. What is going to be left? All of the taller slides have been removed from the parks around here, along with the teeter-totters and merry go rounds.

[BuelahWitch]

20. They can always have them march around the playground

It will prepare them to fight in the endless war.

[likesmountains 52]

27. No kidding, what's left?

[Baclava]

18. Cut down all the trees in parks too! A kid might try to climb one and fall.

Can't have our precious little snowflakes get bruised or something.

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. I knew it was over when they banned "Dodgeball". n/t

[malthaussen]

48. They banned dodgeball?

Damn, that was my best game. I couldn't catch (no depth perception), but I had great reflexes.

-- Mal

[cherokeeprogressive]

65. They did in my school district in So. Cal.

It separated the athletic kids from the non and hurt self-esteem, plus the larger, slower targets were the first and most often hit.

[malthaussen]

68. There's irony for you.

It was about the only game from which I could derive self-esteem!

-- Mal

[Liberal_in_LA]

91. long time ago... lining kids up against the wall and throwing a ball at them?

Definitely out for the new millennium.

[hatrack]

23. Earth To Be Made Child-Safe - Now "Sportin' Kids Family Fun Play Globe"

EDIT

The U.N. resolution was the result of thousands of phone calls from worried parents concerned about child safety hazards lurking in the earth's widely varying terrain and ecosystems.

"I've been complaining about Nepal for years," said Sandy Haberman, president of the Arlington Heights, IL, Fearful Parents Association. "Have you seen that country? Those mountains there are just an accident waiting to happen."

To help increase kids' awareness of the potential dangers of mountains like Nepal's Everest, James Brown recently recorded a new promotional safety song, "Get Down Offa That Thing! (You Could Fall and Hurt Yourself)."

The massive overhaul of the earth's surface involves several major steps: First, all topography will be evened out to a height of two feet above sea level. Lakes and rivers, long known for their fast currents and dangerous bacteria, will be drained, paved and covered in shag carpeting. Hazardous animals like alligators and tigers will have their sharp teeth replaced with soft, non-toxic, extra-large "fun foam" cushions.

EDIT

http://www.theonion.com/articles/earth-to-be-made-childsafe,1088/

[MissB]

24. Our grade school went against the grain and installed

a space net.

Just a quick note - Washington state had a child die late last week after a swing incident. She apparently never mentioned to anyone that something had happened. She died the next day.

Edited to add link to sad story of girl: http://www.oregonlive.com/clark-county/index.ssf/2014/10/report_vancouver_child_school.html

[wheniwasincongress]

28. Seesaws are the real danger

at least for this skinny kid. I stayed away from it because all my partners would send me flying up a few inches off my seat, and it hurt when your ass would make contact with that wooden seat, and it would hurt your ass again when they sent your seat to the ground.

I loved swings.

[Liberal_in_LA]

89. forgot out the seeswaw... yeah, experienced the "bump" when it hit the ground suddenly

look at this giant one!

[Egnever]

29. It was diving boards when I was a kid

And I have been pissed off about it ever since...

[bhikkhu]

30. I think every time I took my daughter to a playground, at that age

it just looked like a death-trap to me, a thousand accidents waiting to happen. In school the kids were always coming home with the daily injury report (likely exaggerations and fabrications, mostly). But I'd still favor keeping playgrounds as they are, even if they're dangerous. Play is supposed to prepare you for the real world, and the real world isn't so forgiving if you haven't learned the basic physical stuff.

[dilby]

33. 7 year old girl in Vancouver WA died on Friday.

Two days after she fell off a swing, it's pretty sad but you know how things are today. It's all about being reactionary and trying everything you can to protect the kids.

http://www.katu.com/news/local/Vancouver-girl-stormy-solis-described-as-a-little-light-278311421.html

[Jim Beard]

61. swings are safe

its what we called "Bailing out" that isn't safe. Make bailing out a no no, not swinging.

[hedgehog]

39. How about this for a deal: swingsets, monkey bars and merry go rounds will be returned

to playgrounds provided your kid dies on one. It's always easy to complain about people keeping kids too safe when it's someone else's kid who is hurt, disabled or killed.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

43. or if YOU don't want YOUR kid on the swingsets YOU get to make that determination.

Someone is only allowed to advocate leaving the equipment in place so long as the chance of their child receiving an injury is replaced by an absolute certainty?

It's kind of early to be chasing the "Worst Post of the Day" award but -- damn -- you came out fighting for it.

[cali]

73. sorry, I'm a big one for letting kids take physical risks.

Yes, I let my own son take risks as a young child, from chopping kindling with a hatchet at age 7 to ice climbing at 11, skiing, water skiing, etc.

[MrScorpio]

40. When I was a kid,, I used to jump out of swings while in mid air...

The higher, the better.

Never got one scratch on me from doing that. I was smart enough to land on grass.

But one day after eating lunch, I ran out for recess, fell down in the adjacent parking lot and split knee wide open, which required several stitches.

I don't see insurance companies banning parking lots.

[hifiguy]

51. Same here. It was like being Superman flying through the air.

As long as the landing area was nice soft grass.

[Warren DeMontague]

41. I'm glad shit is safer now, personally.

People did a lot of stupid shit without thinking back in the 60s and 70s. Smoked cigarettes, drove drunk with no seatbelts, threw lawn darts at each other... there are reasons things have changed, and changed for the better.

Aside from throwing people- inevitably- off onto concrete and breaking an arm or a skull, what were merry-go-rounds good for? Barfing?

I look at the stuff kids actually have to have fun on today and it is LIGHT YEARS better than the shit we had.

[My Pet Goat]

79. Lawn darts...

Yes...lawn darts...I was a member of the free-range child, lawn-dart playing club. I made it through without injury, but in retrospect that was one of the most dangerous game I ever played. We were kids. We threw them wildly into the air not sure where they would land (that was the point). Of course we did. I'm glad that game is gone.

[MerryBlooms]

42. End of another era.

Are the kids still provided with jump ropes and the big red bounce balls? I remember rarely swinging because they were always full, but there was a gym supplies box in our class closet and we could check out balls for 4 or 2 square and jump ropes. It was the same for my kids, but they were also allowed to take their soccer balls and use them on recess.

[leftyladyfrommo]

45. but football is OK.

I loved the swings and the carousel and the high slide. That was dangerous, too. Those are probably all gone. Kids are so fearless.

[malthaussen]

46. I used to loop-the-loop on those things.

Elementary school rite-of-passage.

-- Mal

[gollygee]

47. Swings probably are the most dangerous at this point because

they've gotten rid of everything that was more fun. The best things were the may poles. Hours of entertainment!

[Jim Beard]

62. The only thing I see dangerous about this photo

is the dirt eroded away from the concrete. We have learned to use gravel in some areas because concrete is erosive. OK for the very center to anchor the ploe but the outer parts need to be gravel.

[Liberal_in_LA]

92. Rubber tire... looks like safety features were beginning to be incorporated

[malthaussen]

49. Hell, some playgrounds won't let you run.

Like the man said, "liability" rules.

-- Mal

[unblock]

53. i love how we're all indignant about taking away our nostalgic childhood playground,

and no one seems to care much about the 200,000 annual emergency room visits from swings alone, cited in the o.p.

yeah, i had a blast on 15' high slides and going sky-high on the swings and jumping off, and touching the tree branches before landing hard onto the concrete playground. i might have gotten a few bruises or cuts and like everyone else here, i survived and remember the good times and barely remember the injuries.

of course, i also remember a few other students who got concussions and broken arms and such.

seriously, what's the objection to finding safer playthings for our kids? i take mini-unblock to the school playground and a local park playground. they're both much safer than what i grew up with. soft material to fall on, any hinges are encased to protect little fingers, etc. but he has a blast all the same. partly it's because the most fun is just playing make-believe with friends.

[TM99]

66. Maybe it is because, accidents happen.

The only way you protect a child from never having an accident is by controlling her every move, action, and activity. Healthy children that has never made.

One child died. That is sad. Now all children lose swing sets. That is tragic.

But hey, they are ripe now to become good little American consumers. They can play on their Xbox, iPad's, and see who can get the highest score in Flappy Bird.

[unblock]

70. except that there are still playgrounds and kids still have plenty of fun on them.

accidents happen, sure, and will continue to happen, even on safer playgrounds.

"accidents happen" can legitimately be used to argue against seeking the holy grail of zero injuries, sure.

but it's heinous if it's used simply to justify a callous disregard for our children's safety.

the path we're on seems right to me, to continually improve playgrounds and continually make them safer, while still making sure kids are having fun. if i ever take mini-unblock to the playground and see him and his friends bored to tears, then i'll know we've gone too far. we're not remotely there. he has every bit as much fun as i remember having on much more dangerous playgrounds.

[gollygee]

90. Older kids don't really play on playgrounds much anymore

Kids over about 6 or 7 or so don't have much interest in playgrounds as they are, at least that's what I've seen with kids and playgrounds around here. There isn't much for older kids to do on them. We played on playgrounds and loved them much older than that.

[unblock]

96. not around here anyway. mini-unblock is 8, and we see plenty of older kids there.

[My Pet Goat]

78. Agreed, these type of threads are usually 95% filled with

reasoning that can be boiled down to: "it didn't happen to me, so it doesn't happen to others (i.e., fears overblown)..." I was a free-range kid and nothing bad happened to me, but I don't for a second think there were a lot of easily-avoidable tragedies back in my day. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the free-range posters here actually witnessed some bad accidents when they were kids.

It is also very difficult to sue a city government and win contrary to widely held beliefs (i.e., greedy lawyers). Think about it, if a lawsuit regarding falling off a swing was routinely successful, what city playground would be in business today? This is more likely insurance companies increasing their profits at the margins or error on the part of the county official.

[Jim Beard]

85. I agree

I had a lot of close calls. Some could have been fatal.

[Liberal_in_LA]

93. not totally indignant. Glad for the safey if activities that include climbing, jumping, running

are still available.

[KamaAina]

60. Derp.

Couldn't we just design safer ones?

[Liberal_in_LA]

94. some examples

[Jim Beard]

63. Maybe we could have softer concrete.

and flexible steel.

[HockeyMom]

67. NYC kids had the STREET as a playground

at least in Manhattan back then. Didn't have a school playground. You had to go to a public playground for that equipment. Lunch recess we played in the street or on the sidewalk: jumping rope, tag, dodge ball, etc., on blacktop and concrete. Grass? WHAT grass?

When we left our apartments, we played again in the streets unless we were older and could walk to a park ourselves or parents took us. In the summers (before AC) we turned on fire hydrants and splashed on the street barefoot. Um, disease concerned people would be horrifed today with that. There was WET bird and dog poop in those streets, and even on many occasions, HUMAN VOMIT. Kids paid no attention, and the boys even laughed at girls being squeamish over that. Our parents just told us to avoid it but not to not go outside.

Oh, yeah, "safety" today, BUT this includes "safety" about catching some deadly disease also. We survived not only dangerous play and playgrounds, but also what people today consider deadly contagious diseases.

[jmowreader]

69. This thread reads like the old RW "I remember my childhood" one

It's all about how life usta be better before the Nanny State kicked in.

When we were thirsty we didn't get a bottle of water, we drank from a hose and we liked it. Well, then there was Johnny, he was a pretty good kid but he drank from a hose at the park while they were pumping weed killer through it, and we buried him.

And we had peeling paint on the windowsills and we liked it. Well, then there was Susie who ate the paint because lead paint tastes sweet, and she just kept getting stupider till they put her in a home.

We all started smoking at 14 and we liked it. Frank died of a stroke at 50, Ed has had two heart attacks and I couldn't fly to Mike's funeral because they don't let oxygen tanks on airplanes.

And we didn't know nothin' about this "nutrition" crap...I remember when the rickets made Johnny's legs bow. We all called him Cowboy. He hated that.

Yeah, those kids that grew up after we found out how to keep 'em from dying or growing up malformed, they just don't know how good life can be.

[TM99]

84. New is not always better.

Life is balance between looking backwards and looking forwards. If we step too far forward, what do we give up or sacrifice if we don't also look back.

I support Roe v. Wade. But hell that was 40 years ago. I support marriage. Yes, good old fashion marriage between two loving adults. That's why I support all men and women having the right to marriage no matter what their orientation or gender is.

Sadly, yes, this does feel very Nanny State like. Democrats can easily fall into that. We know what is best for you because it will protect you. Accidents happen. Tragic ones happen daily. It wasn't the glorious old days when we had swing sets and delusions that no one got hurt. It is the reality that sure, you can take away the swings but accidents are just going to happen somewhere else. Such is life. This isn't about protecting kids. Damn, this is about CYA for schools and limiting payouts by insurance companies. Cui bono my friend.

[TeamPooka]

75. Cars kill a lot of people every year. When are we getting rid of those too? nt

[valerief]

76. But bring as many guns as you like to school! nt

[shenmue]

77. Aww, man

I has Le sad.

[woodsprite]

80. First, they came for the pump-bar swings, then.....

Does anyone remember those? I loved them! I'm 51yo and they removed them from the playground by the time I was through middle school because they were dangerous.

When I was in elementary school, we had yellow caution lines painted around the bottom of each piece of equipment. Lines had to form outside of that caution line if you wanted a turn to ride. Each piece of equipment had their own teacher monitor at recess time: the swings, the slide, the pump-bar swings, the climbers, the teeter totters, etc.

Here's a pic of the pump bar swing that I found:

http://tinyurl.com/mg7mtqw

[Douglas Carpenter]

81. so, little Oskar was right

Oskar's Fears and the Swing

[former9thward]

86. Many on DU protest any criticism of trial lawyers.

I seen it posted a hundred times when I have criticized them. 'They are there to protect the people against the evil corporations.' Well this is what they have caused. No fun is risk free. No exercise is risk free. Nothing at all in life is risk free. But if anything happens a trial lawyer is there to sue and destroy.

[lindysalsagal]

87. We're gonna wrap all the kids in bubble rooms

And send their parents letters every day telling them how wonderful their children are.