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Dodgeball too dangerous???

A New York State appellate court recently refused to dismiss a case stemming from a 7-year old’s injury while playing dodgeball in school. Groups are chiming in claiming that dodgeball is too dangerous for kids to be playing.

Dodgeball has been banned from schools in Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Utah, Maryland, and New York under the claim that the game is unfair and exclusionary. Most of these states have also banned variations of dodgeball. According to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, “dodgeball is not an appropriate activity for K-12 school physical education programs,” and it provides “little opportunities for everyone in the class, especially the slower, less agile students who need the activity the most.”

The case in New York started in 2001 when a 7-year old girl was playing a modified version of dodgeball in her PE class. The girl became entangled with another child and fell on to a hardwood floor, resulting in surgery and the posibility that her injured arm will not grow correctly due to a growth plate injury.

According to the school district’s attorney, “this seems to be a new area. It kind of makes you think, ‘What’s next?'”

Published inNews

8 Comments

  1. Star Star

    Dodgeball is a dangerous game, period. It should be banned from schools all over the country and all over the world.

    • Mason Mason

      Pure nonsense! Look at what PE programs are offering with the “NEW PE.”
      Kids aren’t getting any fitter, but the wallets of guys who are selling the crap equipment is getting larger!

  2. moonshine moonshine

    dodgeball is really fun to play but when you get hurt you feel horrible. i personally love playing it but think it is a threat to all children. it should be banned from all schools.

  3. Dave Dave

    Maybe we should pad the floors and wall as well, because if a child is running and falls they might get hurt. GET A GRIP. If you don’t want your child to play, tell them not to. If kids are not agile or fast enough to play something then they should not play. I was not tall enough to be a basketball player, should they disallow basketball also. I also was not big enough to play football, will that be banned, I think not. I was fast enough to run track, and yes there were some heavy kids that could not run track so they didn’t. Teach your kids to deal with life, don’t ban things because they can’t win, all you are doing is making them week. This is also true for the crap of “every kid gets a trophy”, no, everyone doesn’t win, someone has to lose, that what makes winning, “winning”. 1st place is the winner, 2nd and 3rd were close, everyone else lost. Deal with it or don’t play, but don’t try to take things away from the ones who can deal with loosing or want to play just because it’s fun.

  4. Mason Mason

    Dodgeball dangerous? Reality check…..most kids getting hurt with indo-boards!
    New PE is bogus as vendors are simply trying to sell their equipment.

  5. Chad A Fisher Chad A Fisher

    I was trying to think of a physical sport that wasn’t dangerous in any fashion, and didn’t risk physical injury. Still thinking.

    With that said, Dodgeball is a Sport and should be treated as such by the school, just the same as American Football and Volleyball with school tryouts team uniforms, referees etc. It shouldn’t be a requirement for a P.E. class.

  6. Lynn Lynn

    Guaranteed the only people who think dodgeball isn’t dangerous are the stupid jerks who enjoy pelting kids in the head while in school and playing it in gym class. PE in itself is a joke. No kid is LESS fat because of gym class. The reality is that the only kids who enjoyed PE were the mean girls and bullies who used gym class to humiliate less athletic, weaker kids. Dodgeball was one of those games.

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