Dodgeball is illegal?

**old guy** · April-20-11, 11:05 AM

NY day camp law could outlaw kickball, tag, Red Rover, Wiffle Ball
April 19, 2011
By CHRIS CAROLA - Associated Press , Adirondack Daily Enterprise

ALBANY - Red Rover, Red Rover, don't even think about coming over.

That could be the scenario this summer for day camps and similar programs across New York, where a lawmaker says new state Department of Health regulations will put a serious crimp in the fun of thousands of children.

State Sen. Patricia Ritchie of Watertown wants the agency to postpone regulations under a new law that says day campers face a "significant risk of injury" from traditional summer games including capture the flag, kickball and tag.

She wants the health commissioner to hold off on the latest guidelines because she believes they'll put a staffing and therefore financial burden on local recreational programs trying to comply with the law, which took effect April 1.

The amendment revises the definition of a summer children's day camp to include organized indoor group activities involving "nonpassive recreational activities with significant risk of injury."

Under the agency's guidelines, those include such activities as archery and rock climbing, but also Capture the Flag, kickball, Red Rover and Wiffle Ball.
Attachment 9471

I didn't realize until I heard this news story yesterday that Dodgeball had been banned several years ago. But now they want to stop Wiffle Ball and Tag because kids might get hurt? Red Rover? Emergency rooms must be filled with kids injured playing Red Rover.

And we wonder why so many kids sit and play video games all day and gain weight.

What's next, or is there anything left?

Is this an insurance company thing or just nervous parents?

**Planner3357** · April-20-11, 01:42 PM

This is America becoming pussified...why are we so tight? Everyone is afraid of their god damn kids getting hurt. Look, getting hurt is a part of life and growing up. That's how kids learn. Why is this country such a bunch of wussys? I hate people.

It's like now kids are getting awards and trophies for finishing last...why? Because parents don't want kids to get their feelings hurt. And heaven forbid kids learn what its like to lose. Because not everyone is a winner, there are losers in this world. LOTS of them.

**Django** · April-20-11, 06:37 PM

What about smear the queer, did they outlaw smear the queer or is that still legal in bible belt red states?

Kidding!

What kills me is that this is most likely liberal doings, I could be wrong. While I am def left of center I do have my conservative trimmings.

**canuck** · April-20-11, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by Planner3357

This is America becoming pussified...why are we so tight? Everyone is afraid of their god damn kids getting hurt. Look, getting hurt is a part of life and growing up. That's how kids learn. Why is this country such a bunch of wussys? I hate people.

It's like now kids are getting awards and trophies for finishing last...why? Because parents don't want kids to get their feelings hurt. And heaven forbid kids learn what its like to lose. Because not everyone is a winner, there are losers in this world. LOTS of them.

You need more losers if you want a couple of winners on American Idle. That is how youse stengthen the status quo.

**Magnatomicflux** · April-20-11, 07:47 PM

wooooooooow

Hope nobody decides to let they're kids be kids and end up having them taken away for child endangerment.

If some kid glues his fingers together.....are we gonna ban arts & crafts too? MIght as well infill all the swimming pools while we're at it. Put trainning wheels on everyones bikes....permenently.

**lpg** · April-20-11, 08:37 PM

You guys are all wrong. Protecting kids at camp like this prepares them for adulthood. Every little hurt will be addressed by proper legal action.

**1KielsonDrive** · April-20-11, 11:53 PM

Another trite little 'PC Gone Wild' story from the internet and someones imagination. Get a life. Ohmigawd, they're outlawing kickball! What's next? Major League Baseball? Tiddleewinks? 'They' can't mess with my youth and memories like this. How dare they!

**old guy** · April-21-11, 09:45 AM

Anyone remember mumblety peg? Two or three people faced off with their legs spread out at about shoulder width. You pulled out your pocket knife and fired it into the ground. Whoever could throw it closest to their foot won. If you stuck the knife in your foot you won by default. The loser had to pull a stick that had been pounded into the ground out with their teeth. It's good that games like that have faded into history. Then there was the one that involved people standing in a circle and spitting, but I don't want to get into that one.

Maybe we should take a closer look at Hide & Seek though. Because well, what if some kid's really good at hiding and nobody ever finds them? I think my mother used to suggest that I play hide & seek all the time.

**Detroit Stylin** · April-21-11, 09:50 AM

lol yah that is insane....probably the brain child of someone who was never good at games in their life....

**Searay215** · April-21-11, 10:25 AM

This is such BS....I mean where does this slippery slope end? Next we'll outlaw bicycles, baseball, football and every other sport. Not to mention....hey how about those dangerous board games...I mean you can throw a house from a Monopoly game and seriously hurt someone.

Stop the insanity!!!!!!

Yep the US is going to hell in a hand basket...hey wait a minute is a hand basket dangerous?

**Gistok** · April-21-11, 11:45 AM

Next thing you know they will be banning Jarts!!

**canuck** · April-21-11, 12:06 PM

I oneth got really hurt by an untholithited nerf ball.

**slick** · April-21-11, 02:09 PM

Next thing you know they will be banning Jarts!!

Jarts are banned, I have an old set with metal tips.

The new ones are plastic with velcro to stick with.
is velcro dangerous!

**Gistok** · April-21-11, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by slick

Jarts are banned, I have an old set with metal tips.

The new ones are plastic with velcro to stick with.
is velcro dangerous!

Yes, I was being facetious...

Is Velcro dangerous?? .... only when it hits you in the eye....

**East Detroit** · April-21-11, 03:08 PM

Dodgeball provides hope and confidence to the classmates who aren't the college type.

**Django** · April-21-11, 03:48 PM

Originally Posted by old guy

Then there was the one that involved people standing in a circle and spitting, but I don't want to get into that one.

That sound like a game I heard about Australian kids [[male kids) used to play called sog the cracker. I wont explain the details, you can use your imagination but the loser had to eat the cracker. Makes us Americans seem pretty sane..

**old guy** · April-21-11, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Django

That sound like a game I heard about Australian kids [[male kids) used to play called sog the cracker. I wont explain the details, you can use your imagination but the loser had to eat the cracker. Makes us Americans seem pretty sane..

Yeah, that sounds pretty similar, minus the cracker.

Why.......the neighborhood I grew up in, the kids were so tough we used to play dodgeball with a medicine ball.

**slick** · April-22-11, 09:25 AM

.......the neighborhood I grew up in, the kids were so tough we used to play dodgeball with a medicine ball

we were so tuff we played dodge ball with bowling balls, yeah it was a polish neighborhood.

**Redleg81** · April-26-11, 03:33 PM

My dad and his brothers used to shoot arrows at each other with loosely strung bows, while wearing sweaters and winter coats. Nonetheless, my pops had a three inch scar along one elbow... And I don't recall him mentioning if they utilized headgear or goggles. Yikes!

**maxx** · April-26-11, 06:21 PM

It looks like it's just a clarification of legal definitions probably for liability purposes.

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf..._law_cons.html

"...
The measure was aimed at closing a loophole in the law that allowed indoor day camps to operate without the same state oversight applied to outdoor day camps, even though some of the indoor camps were providing many of the same activities held at the outdoor ones.
Proponents of the expanded guidelines said they wanted the indoor camps to be brought under the same safety regulatory umbrella as their outdoor counterparts.
But Ritchie, a Republican whose district includes three mostly rural north-central counties, said the expanded definition of what constitutes a summer day camp will require camps in many of New York's smaller towns and villages to add staff such as medical personnel and pay $200 for a state permit.
In a letter written last week to Health Department Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah, Ritchie asked that the agency take another look at the new law and rethink the inclusion of Red Rover, Wiffle Ball and other such games as falling under the category of "potentially dangerous."
"It's overregulation by the state of things that have been around for years and years," she said Tuesday. "I understand horseback riding, rock climbing as being potentially dangerous and should be regulated. It's certainly a stretch to include Red Rover and Wiffle Ball and activities like that."
Ritchie said town officials in Philadelphia, near Watertown, have told her they might not be able to offer summer programs for children if the regulations stick. She said the town doesn't have the funds to pay for additional staff such as nurses or medical emergency technicians, as specified under the guidelines for summer day camps.