Word: playground
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...playground game has drawn some vocal defenders. "You mean there's weak in the world? There's strong?" howled SPORTS ILLUSTRATED columnist Rick Reilly. "Of course there is, and dodge ball is one of the first opportunities in life to figure out which you are and how you're going to deal with it." Martha Kupferschmidt, director of personnel and student services at the Murray school district in Utah, wonders why dodge ball has been singled out. "If we were going to ban dodge ball for aggressiveness," she says, "we would have to look at a whole gamut of sports...
...headline in TIME this week alerts us: SCOURGE OF THE PLAYGROUND. The subhead reads, "It's dodge ball, believe it of not. More schools are banning the childhood game, saying it's too violent." Tamala Edwards' article reports that "in a growing number of school districts in such states as Texas, Virginia, Maine, and Massachusetts, circles of kids dodging and throwing balls at one another have been banned from gym class...Opponents warn that dodge ball - also called murder ball and killer ball in some places - could be an incubator for later aggressive, even violent behavior...
Concerns about safe playgrounds are not new; the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission first published guidelines in 1981. But the rules have gradually become stricter, and in recent years, courts, insurance companies and state governments have given these rules the force of law. Now, with federal regulations passed last year requiring wheelchair access to climbing structures, some playground operators can't afford to replace what they have removed. Says City College of New York environmental psychologist Roger Hart: "I think it's gone...
Even without the new regulations, some playground operators could see that changes were needed. "There were horrible metal pieces and concrete that could cut our children," says Judy Davidson, who successfully lobbied to have climbing equipment removed from Community Elementary School 236, where she teaches in the Bronx, N.Y. But in two years of writing grant proposals, Davidson has been unable to replace what a bulldozer demolished in a few minutes. "You know how important it is for them to have a place to climb and play," she laments...
...biggest problems for many parks, schools and churches. A medium-size structure that fully complies with federal guidelines costs around $100,000. Adding to the price are new regulations, issued in October 2000 under the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring that at least half of every playground be accessible to children in wheelchairs...