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Ban the ball
“A Toronto elementary school has banned most balls from its playground, citing the need to protect staff and students after a parent got hit in the head with a soccer ball. … On [November 14], Earl Beatty Junior and Senior Public School principal Alicia Fernandez sent home a note warning parents their students are no longer allowed to bring soccer balls, basketballs, baseballs, footballs and volleyballs to school. … Two weeks ago a mother picking up her child at the daycare went to hospital with a concussion after getting struck in the back of the head with a soccer ball. … The ban on balls is part of growing restrictions on sport activities in the name of safety, child-health researchers say, even as policy-makers promote physical education as a way to curb rising rates of childhood obesity. … Critics say the ban on schoolyard sports is part of a broader issue of parents and educators who try to keep children out of harm’s way—by not letting them walk to school or play in the park alone—but end up encouraging sedentary habits that put children at greater risk of serious health issues, such as diabetes, decades later.”
—Tamsin McMahon, Postmedia News, Calgary Herald, November 17, 2011
