The vicious childhood game know as “Tag,” whose number of mortally wounded victims is only rivaled by the number of dead from global warming, has been banned at a California elementary school.
After four children in fourth and fifth grade at Gold Ridge Elementary in Folsom were deemed to have played the game with too much physical contact, all physical contact in the schoolyard was banned, as the Sacramento Bee reported.
According to the Bee, Principal David Frankel notified four parents that their kids had been warned about being too rough. His note read, “Today, we implemented new procedures at school aimed at reducing physical contact and related problem behaviors. Student(s) were instructed that physical contact, including tag games, touch football, etc., were not allowed in the yard.”
Fourth-grader Mallory Giddens told KOVR-TV that some other kids “touch too hard” and “push people over,” but argued against banning “Tag,” saying, “I don’t really like it. I mean, I don’t really play tag, but I don’t think it’s fair to everyone else that plays tag!”
District spokesman Daniel Thigpen told KOVR, “Kids were getting too rough … so the school told them to stop playing those games. … It’s not uncommon for a school to enact specific recess rules to address specific behavior problems.”
Frankel’s note to the four parents pointed out that three stages of discipline were the norm when children were out of control in the schoolyard: First, a warning and walk with yard supervisors, then a referral to the principal’s office and removal from the yard for a day, and finally a parent-teacher-principal disciplinary conference.
How about removing them from the yard and simply letting the other kids continue playing “Tag”?