NY Nanny State Tries to Ban Beloved Kid Games — Wiffle Ball, Red Rover, Kickball, & Others Claimed Too “Dangerous” by Liberals
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on April 25, 2011
Wiffle ball, Red Rover, kickball, and other childhood sports and games are banned in NY because they are 'dangerous'
The Nanny State is at it again with its Food Police tyranny. But, it’s for the good of the children, of course.
In Chicago, homemade sack lunches are banned because parents are apparently too stupid to know how to pack a nutritious lunch.
In several liberal states, McDonald’s Happy Meal toys are on the chopping block to be banned.
In Virginia and Washington, DC, chocolate milk may soon be banned in public schools.
In New York, school bake sales have been banned and now, food isn’t the only thing being banned by NY government statist tyrants. A ban on Wiffle Ball was announced in Albany last week because it’s “unsafe.”
Wait a minute… WIFFLE BALL is dangerous??
The unique, lightweight ball invented by David N. Mullany in the 1950s with holes that were designed to preserve young pitchers’ shoulders and elbows from injury when they threw curveballs? That Wiffle Ball?
Football, baseball, soccer, and basketball haven’t been banned. Not yet. Give the meddling statists time, though…
Now if a child wants a CONDOM, that’s not a problem.
Reported by New York Daily News, Classic kids games like kickball deemed unsafe by state in effort to increase summer camp regulation:
ALBANY – State bureaucrats have identified a potentially deadly hazard facing our children this summer – freeze tag.
That’s right, officials have decided the age-old street game – along with Wiffle Ball, kickball and dodgeball – poses a “significant risk of injury.”
And classics like Capture the Flag, Steal the Bacon and Red Rover are also deemed dangerous in new state regulations for day camps.
“It looks like Albany bureaucrats are looking for kids to just sit in a corner in a house all day and not be outside,” said state Sen. Patty Ritchie (R-St. Lawrence County).
From Helen Whalen Cohen, Townhall, Kickball, Tag Deemed Unsafe, Subject to Regulation:
Sports that are still safe: frisbee, sack races, tug of war
Sports that pose a “significant risk of injury”: freeze tag, Wiffle ball, dodgeball, etc.
There’s been a lot of fuss on a national level over childhood nutrition and obesity. With so much concern over getting kids to eat more vegetables, you would think that lawmakers wouldn’t want to curtail opportunities to get some exercise.
From theblogprof:
In a totalitarian state, there is absolutely nothing that escapes the glare of the busy body bureaucrat minding your own business. Not even kids games.
From Decoding New York City, Deadly Wiffle Ball, Terrifying Tag Banned at NY Summer Camps:
Don’t get me wrong, I remember taking a wiffle ball to the face once, and it damn near left a welt on my cheek.
I also remember being tagged during tag, the humiliation was so complete, I got hooked on bazooka bubble gum and had to spend minute after minute chewing it.
And dodgeball, I hit a kid above the shoulders once and got yelled at by my gym teacher. I never liked her anyway.
Don’t even get me started on “capture the flag!”
Given that these kid games have been proven too deadly to play, what are some of the alternatives?
There are always video games and television, but then you run the risk of childhood obesity, a condition that has been firmly linked to premature death.
I guess drug dealers get a fair amount of exercise while walking the beat in the hood or running from law enforcement. But they also have a high mortality rate due to conflicts being solved with gunplay.
Forget swimming, did you ever see the movie Titanic?
Biting fingernails is fun, but God knows where those hands have been – then you run the risk of infection.
Kids could spend all day texting, but wait, they do that anyway.
However, sanity has thankfully prevailed and America has spoken.
The New York Wiffle Ball ban has been lifted… for now.
Reported by The Sports Pig Blog, National nightmare is over: New York Wiffle Ball ban is lifted:
Less than one day after their idiotic attempt to impose regulations and possible bans on children’s games and activities like Wiffle Ball, dodgeball and Freeze Tag, New York State Department of Health officials are scurrying for cover like cockroaches. Albany bureaucrats rescinded a list of kids summer camp activities that were proposed for heavy regulation after being listed as posing a ”significant risk of health.”
Under a proposed addition to a 2009 law, New York Summer Camps would not have been able to allow children to play Wiffle Ball or participate in a long list of children’s games without paying the state hundreds of dollars and hiring extra medical staff. Frisbee, tug of war and sack races had already been banned in the original law.
However, after howls of derision and ridicule throughout the entire country, Albany backed off and rescinded the regulations.
We need a new ban.
One that bans us from the chuckleheaded liberal banners.
About the author
I don’t know about any other state , but these silly bans have ususally been attempted by, as my Mom called them, those “panty waist Republicans.”
Uh, really? In New York? NY has about one Republican in any capacity of power, Bloomberg, but he’s a RINO.
The majority of elected politicians and school officials in NY are DEMOCRATS, dear heart, and have been for quite a long time. Maybe your mom is thinking of California or Illinois, where more recent weird Nanny State bans have been cited. However, those states are also predominantly run by Democrats. Texas, maybe? Although, I don’t have knowledge of any weird bans that Republicans have done there recently. However, a new school mandate last year that made learning Arabic in some Texas schools was shot down after tremendous outcry – and that mandate was initiated by Democrats in the school district.
Oops, left out a line….historically here in Indiana.
My Mom’s been dead for 25 years, so we’re talking back in the 70′s and 80′s
Makes more sense now.
It’s not the lawmakers, it’s the G-D lawyers! Look up how many suits are filed against school systems by over-protective Moms. My daughter’s school band had to stop initiation (a 40 year tradition) because one parent threatened to sue. Poor little Jared got ketchup in his eye, he could have gone blind. Oh, and she and her family are dyed in the elephant hide Republicans
Blithering chuckleheads – I know a few Republican families just like that. And a few Libertarians. And a lot of Democrats (even within my own family, sad to say).
Morons with no common sense on all sides of the ideological fence. Thank goodness you and I are perfect, eh, “Joanie”?
Oui.
Haha – vous êtes si drôle.
Vous remercie. Vous aussi.
Merci beaucoup.
