Charlotte Avenue Elementary School in Nashua, Massachusetts has banned the game “tag” because it violates the school policy of “no contact.”
School officials told parents in a post on the school’s website that they were prompted to review playground rules after numerous injuries–including several concussions and a broken writes–occurred recently.
“As you know, the traditional recess game ‘tag,’ involves one or more players chasing other players in an attempt to ‘tag’ or touch them, usually with their hand,” the officials wrote. ” Seems innocent enough, however the force with which students ‘tag’ varies greatly, and this game, in particular, has been banned in many schools in the United States due primarily to concerns about injuries. The other issue with tag is that students are running and not paying attention to where they are going. They are often running through other games and there have been numerous incidents where innocent bystanders have been injured from this type of play.”
Principal Patricia Beaulieu told the Nashua Telegraph that school officials want children running, jumping, and releasing energy, “but just in a safe way.
The school has always had a “no contact” policy, and “tag” violates that policy, she said.
Commenting in a Facebook group for teachers and parents of students at the school, Bill Chisolm, who has a fourth grader at the school, said that the school’s decision is unnecessary and a violation of student rights.
“Tag is one of the oldest playground games anywhere,” he said. “To ban tag is just ridiculous; it’s a simple game. They say the kids are overly aggressive – take the overly aggressive kids out of the game.”
Beaulieu said there’s lots of options for kids to engage in other than tag.
“They’re allowed to play soccer … they can do basketball, there’s jump ropes, there’s different balls they can play with, different four square games out there,” Beaulieu said. “It’s really about them being healthy and their well-being.”
