CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Elementary school playgrounds in one West Virginia county are losing their swing sets.When will it ever end?
Swings are being removed from Cabell County schools in southern West Virginia in part because of lawsuits over injuries.
Cabell County schools safety manager Tim Stewart said Wednesday that a lot of parents are accusing him of being un-American, but he says the cost of maintaining a safe surface is too expensive.
Stewart says a lawsuit in the past year involved a youngster who broke his arm jumping off a swing like Superman. It was settled for $20,000.
Other equipment such as monkey bars will remain. Stewart says the schools are able to maintain the proper protection underneath them.
When I was a kid, swing sets existed solely to launch us into low-earth orbit and you only really got hurt if you wussed out at the last second and landed wrong. Sure you got a few scrapes and bruises even if you did it perfectly, but all that really mattered was that you flew far in front of as many witnesses as possible and got to your feet again unassisted and without crying.
But back then, we were All-American kids all trying to be like Neil Armstrong, sans Apollo rocket. Our All-American parents warned us to be careful and when we got hurt, told us that it was our own fault for being so stupid. They weren't cousin-dating single-moms who sit around with a cheap tort lawyer's number on their cell phone's speed-dial and go to bed every night dreaming of either a lotto win or a jackpot lawsuit that will set them up in style and let them buy the double-wide that'll make them the envy of the trailer park. Thanks to parents like this and the cheap tort lawyer who live off of them like the parasites that they are, one day we're going to look around and realize that we've raised a generation of milquetoastes with no ambition, no spirit and absolutely no willingness to defy the odds or accept a dare. The greatest "can-do" nation on Earth will have become France, and the Age of Men will truly be at an end for all time.
Very sad.
In 1965/66 I broke my collarbone at school playing soccer. I went to the school nurse. Who might have been my mother, but I'm not sure now. :) In any case my mother took me to the doctor who fixed me up.
ReplyDeleteAt no time did the thought of suing anyone occur. Broken bones happened. Kids got hurt. Doctors fixed them. End of story.
The pussification of America continues.
ReplyDeleteBest in our neighborhood (Memphis, 1950s) was a thick rope, tied to a tree branch 40' up. We'd stand on the roof of the one-story house, swing out and then drop onto the grassy dirt to see how far "out" we could go.
ReplyDeleteNever broke anything but sure landed hard mid-summer when the dirt was dry and hard.
"Remember ya' gotta roll when ya' hit!"
Have you seen the milquetoast living in the White House and how he sets an example?
ReplyDeleteBad stuff is always somebody else's fault now.
My grandparents and my mom were born in McDowell County(which has sadly been reduced to being called "The Free State of McDowell County")and it just kills me that an area that was once so rich in resources (coal and hard working people) has been reduced to government dependancy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid I jumped off a neighbor's swing set and fractured both arms. The remainder of the summer (and into the Fall) was spent in those old plaster casts.
ReplyDeleteNobody was sued.
Shortly after the casts came off, I was on that swing set again, except that I was a bit more careful about how I jumped from a flying swing.
P.S. The owner of the swing set was a lawyer, one of his kids became a lawyer, and I became a lawyer.
The "Me" generation has raised the "it's someone else's fault...let's sue" generation. It's a shame that personal responsibility has died so completely in our culture.
ReplyDeleteI vividly remember the being in the second grade, going to jump off the swing, waiting at the last minute with my arms still in the front of the chains to jump off, swinging backwards and suddenly landing full force on the ground on my stomach. That was the first time I'd ever seen stars and had my vision start to shrink. Shockingly I didn't worry about telling anyone, and even if I had, my folks would have known it was MY OWN FAULT. Lesson learned, as that was, oh, 23 years ago and I still remember it. I always thought that was the whole point of childhood!
ReplyDelete