Washington state school district bans "tag" to keep kids “emotionally secure”

Despite the rising concerns over inactivity and obesity among children, one Washington school district has decided to ban a favourite recess past time, in an attempt to squash any physical and emotional harm and encourage team sports.

“The Mercer Island School District and school teams have recently revisited expectations for student behavior to address student safety. This means while at play, especially during recess and unstructured time, students are expected to keep their hands to themselves,” the district’s communications director Mary Grady explained via email to Fox News.

“The rationale behind this is to ensure the physical and emotional safety of all students.”

“Good grief, our kids need some unstructured playtime,” one mother, Kelsey Joyce, told Fox News.

“I totally survived tag,” she said, laughing. “I even survived red rover, believe it or not.”

Melissa Neher has two kids at public schools on Mercer Island. After finding out not from the school board, but from her kids about the ban on tag, she created a Facebook page for parents, who were unaware of the school district’s decision.

The decision comes just a week after a Toronto-area school supposedly banned cartwheels.

Last week, students at Runnymede Junior and Senior Public School in Toronto’s Bloor West Village said they were told over the PA system that cartwheels were forbidden, the Toronto Star reported.

Ryan Bird, a spokesman for the Toronto District School Board, said the supposed ban was a misunderstanding.

“Cartwheels are absolutely acceptable,” he told the Toronto Star, adding that the announcement actually referred to “advanced cheerleading-like activities.”

In June, the BBC reported the ban of handstands and cartwheels at an elementary school in Devon, England.