Cabell County (WV) Schools Removing Swing Sets

[TechMan]

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x254029845/School-system-removing-swings

Swing sets are being removed because of increase insurance cost and swing related incident lawsuits.  According to Jedd Flowers of the school district "In this day and age, we have to do everything we can to keep kids safe." They don't have the money available to upgrade from mulch to rubber based surface for the fall protection zone around the swing sets, so they removed them.



Okay where has personal responsibility gone?  Are the kids of the future going to be running around in there own personal bubbles? Common sense has been thrown out the window, kind of like with this kid: http://www.armedpolitesociety.com/index.php?topic=25884.0.

What can be done to prevent the overarching nanny state from continuing to grow?

[makattak]

This case is not the nanny state.

It's the blood-sucking lawyers. (As always, I here put in the disclaimer that no, not all lawyers are bloodsuckers.)

When you can get sued any time that someone is harmed on your property, even if it's through their own stupidity, we get these results.

The only way we can stop this is to do something about the legal environment. Given that nearly all politicians are lawyers and at least one of the parties is HEAVILY reliant on the bloodsucking trial lawyers for cash, a solution seems unlikely.

[makattak]

Further, it's sad, too.

Children need opportunities to test the boundaries and, yes, sometimes even get hurt.

It's part of the maturing process to learn to face fear and learn you're not invincible.

I remember riding the swings as high as possible and bailing out on the top. No rubber surface, either- rock hard dirt to land in. It was fun. (I eventually learned to tuck and roll, too.)

[longeyes]

Liberty is the ultimate litigation opportunity, didn't you know?   We Are All Plaintiffs Now.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

swingsets have been gone at stafford county va schools for a while  and many of the park playgrounds are phasing them out

[longeyes]

Why is that, some kids are able to swing higher than others?

[charby]

They have taken out the tall curly slides, tall slides, tall swing sets, jungle gyms and rocket ships because they are worried kids will get hurt.

[makattak]

They have taken out the tall curly slides, tall slides, tall swing sets, jungle gyms and rocket ships because they are worried kids will get hurt and their parents will sue.

Fixed that for you.

Everyone has known since playgrounds existed that injury was a possibility. Only since we've decided against personal responsibility in this country have people put an end to children's fun.

[Wes]

In my area, they've also removed the kid powered carousels.  The see-saws are starting to disappear, too.  It's unfortunate, because when I was a kid, the funnest thing at the playground were those kid powered carousels.

[Viking]

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x254029845/School-system-removing-swings

Swing sets are being removed because of increase insurance cost and swing related incident lawsuits.  According to Jedd Flowers of the school district "In this day and age, we have to do everything we can to keep kids safe." They don't have the money available to upgrade from mulch to rubber based surface for the fall protection zone around the swing sets, so they removed them.

There's this material out there, I don't know if they've heard about it, but it's really cheap, abundant and above all soft to land on. It's called sand.

[SADShooter]

All of this will really aid in the crusade against childhood obesity/inactivity.

[Regolith]

When I was around 12 or so, an elementary school teacher at my school district broke his arm on a see-saw.  So he went on a crusade and got all the see-saw's banned. 

[Perd Hapley]

When I was around 12 or so, an elementary school teacher at my school district broke his arm on a see-saw.  So he went on a crusade and got all the see-saw's banned. 

He was ahead of his time.

[longeyes]

Why get out of the incubator?  Hey, it's dangerous out there!

[roo_ster]

My city bent over for the trial lawyers and removed the coolest ever playground toy.

I give you...Rocket Park!!!!!!:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TexasRichardson_heightsPark.jpg

It was my boy's favorite thing in the park.  Now it is gone.

They also used to have a wire-frame sub, a spinny UFO, a pipe-dinosaur...

Check them out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/poodlesuperstar/1064833123/

All has been replaced by this mess of pottage:


Let us all say it together:
"Loser Pays"

Or was it that Shakespeare bit?  "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

Not happy withe the current litigious state of affairs.

[charby]

When I was a wee little Charby I always begged my parents to let me play on the rocket slide. Same park also had a couple gun turrets from a battleship and old single engine jet we climbed all over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crapo_Park

[MillCreek]

Out of curiosity, I have attended a couple of seminars on school risk management.  Looking at the slides at the seminars, I have been absolutely amazed at the ability of some kids to kill or severely injure themselves in very creative ways on playground equipment.  There are now universally accepted standards for such things as the depth of rubber or wood chip mulch in playground areas, and Lord help you if the mulch is one inch shallow, and someone is able to argue that little Janey ended up a quadraplegic as a result. 

[P5 Guy]

Very Sad

When parents get the idea they hit the lottery when their kid hurts him/herself

[charby]

from wikiepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungle_gym

The first jungle gym was invented in 1920 and patented by lawyer Sebastian Hinton in Chicago.

Figures