Colo. school bans tag on its playground

Thu Aug 30, 7:44 AM ET
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

"It causes a lot of conflict on the playground," said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.

Running games are still allowed as long as students don't chase each other, she said.

Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban but most parents and children didn't object.

In 2005, two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in favor of alternatives with less physical contact. School officials said the move encouraged more students to play games and helped reduce playground squabbles.

These things just baffle and to be honest kind of anger me. Here are a few more headlines/links from googling "school bans."

School Bans Talking at Lunch
School bans pigs stories
School Bans Hugging
Catholic School Bans Pro-life Speaker
School bans 'wrong race' hairstyle
School bans Christmas,but OK with Halloween
High school bans blogging
Va. middle school bans touching
School bans girl's 'virgin' ring
School bans Mother's Day cards
School Bans Sack Lunches, Baked Goods
Plano school bans Christmas Colors
L.I. School Bans Deaf Boy's 'Helper' Dog


Ok, that's all I have the patience to look up. I can see a kid complaining from something tag related. If someone is picking on you I guess it is natural and acceptable to complain. But I have a problem with parents complaining to teachers about tag related problems as well as schools solving these problems by banning tag. If someone were getting picked on during math class would it make sense to just ban math? Of course not. Although it might sound harsh to some, sometimes parents just need to tell their kids to get over it. Getting picked on or whatever is part of being in elementary, middle and high school (life in general I guess). Learning to handle it when they're young will just make it easier to handle when they are an adult and there is no authority figure to turn to...because it will still happen. If you start whining about it it will just get worse.

Well, there are tons of pages that came up. In short they mostly deal with T-shirts, ipods, anything related to Christianity, Harry Potter, myspace and more than a few dealing with what kind of food kids can bring in.

I remember my dad talking about how when he was a kid everyone played with knives at recess.

Post Peru Post

I just read an old portion of my blog from back when I was in Japan. I enjoyed the memories. Because of that I now feel obligated to write about my Peru trip. Well, I am going to give the headlines and hope I will still know what happened when I read this in 2 years. So Future Mark, I hope you understand this, and if you don't...I'm sorry. And for others who may be interested...you can ask me someday if you want.

Protest in Huanaco
Protest in Pucallpa
8 Hour bus ride to Huaraz with horrible movies blaring.
Bingo on the bus
Cool hostels...one for 3 bucks. The last person before me signed in months before I did.
Ice climbing, hiking, rock climbing.
Nasty bug bites
Spending a week in central Lima...booooring.

Pucallpa...
Playing with all these kids.
Learning espanol...or trying
The police closing down all the streets so cars can race on the main street.
Going to the races only to see nothing but dust for two hours and going home.
Some nice old lady convincing me to hang out with her son.
Hanging out with her son and 10 or so of his super gay friends and listening to them talk about fashion and asking me if I were OK being there.
Motocross and heat
Volleyball
Catching the cell phone thief after he took pics of himself with my cam phone.
Kids using my Ipod and messing with every possible option that it has.
Me getting pissed about it.
Lobo suffering in the heat.

Back from Peru

I am back from Peru. It was awesome. I start school on Monday which means classes from 7:30 to 5 with a break from 9-1 and plenty of time to blog about nothing. During my time in Peru I had all these things I needed to get out of me. Of course I can't remember any of them now. A few I can think of are

Airlines. I think I complain about these after every trip, but I'm not sure. I know I spend hours thinking about complaining about them.

Legalism.

Stupid warnings/additional info on consumer products. I see one as I type this. From the DVD main menu "Subtitles (for the hearing impaired)"