A new ‘hands-off’ approach to recess safety at Mercer Island elementary schools was short-lived after drawing ire from local community members.
Elementary school parents were sounding off through social media about the ‘hands off’ approach that didn’t allow students to put hands on another student while at play during recess, meaning children couldn’t play the popular childhood game of tag.
The district officially “reinstated” tag Friday, Sept. 25.
“Although the plan was focused on keeping students safe, it lacked stakeholder participation and support,” a post on the Mercer Island School District website stated.
Though admitting the district may have made the wrong call with its new recess approach, Superintendent Dr. Gary Plano expressed frustration with how dialogue on the matter came about.
“I am deeply disappointed that a social media campaign was used to express dissatisfaction with a school or district policy rather than initiating contact with the school principal or me,” Plano said in a statement. “We clearly made the wrong call to restrict students’ interactions with each other in such a way that garnered this storm of protest. Our families entrust us with their children to educate them in our public schools, and we would hope that when we differ on an issue, we first try to resolve the disagreement together.”
The school district had adopted the changes and new expectations regarding playground safety. Lakeridge Elementary administration addressed the matter in an email to parents, sent Wednesday, Sept. 23.
“The rationale behind this is to ensure the physical safety of all students,” the email stated.
Lakeridge administrators planned to meet with all students in their classrooms to discuss the safety reasons for ‘hands off’ and to share other ideas for play at recess. The school also encouraged other non-contact games for the kids, such as wall ball, foursquare and hopscotch.
But parents weren’t quick to accept the new approach to recess. STAR MI, a Facebook group created to support ‘tag’ at Mercer Island Schools, accumulated nearly 350 members less than 24 hours after parents were sent the email regarding ‘hands off’ recess.
“Our group believes ‘tag’ and other child-led games encourage independence and much needed activity,” the group listed in its description. “Our group wants to bring back ‘tag’ to Mercer Island schools.”
A post on the MISD website responded to the community backlash, stating “there is not a ban on tag” and that the new approach stemmed from incidents involving student contact that occurred last spring, resulting in fighting and injury.
“Our hope has always been and continues to be an expectation that students respect others’ personal space,” the post read.
Plano addressed the community backlash to ‘hands off’ recess at the regular School Board meeting last Thursday night. He said the new approach emerged after a number of issues occurred at multiple Mercer Island schools late last school year, and was an idea used by other schools around the country.
“It’s regretful that what seemed to be a well-intentioned desire to help protect kids has taken a life of its own,” he commented to the board.
Plano said he went to the Lakeridge PTA meeting Thursday, answering questions about ‘hands off’ recess and agreed to form a parent committee, which would provide an opportunity for parent feedback regarding recess and unstructured play.
