FORGET smoking or bullying - at a Townsville primary school, doing a cartwheel in the playground can get you suspended.

Belgian Gardens State School has banned all forms of gymnastics during breaks, including handstands and somersaults. Even the humble forward roll has been given the flick, the Townsville Bulletin reports.

The ironic part of it?

Education Queensland has declared 2008 the Year of Physical Activity – and their website suggests `handstands, somersaults and gym activities' as ideas for students to send in their tips for staying active.

The rest of the article is here.


This world has gone completely insane.

thats so dirty.. i thought ausgamers was posting s*** news as ausgamers new for a second with the rss thing, till i realised [news] shows on the tail end for _real_ ausgamers news


also. its completely ridiculous

hmm.. that's a good point. Just trying to flag the post so people know it's a news.com.au or other news site copy/pasta thread. :shrug: whatever works I guess.

isn't this a liability issue? what's pc about it?

That is f***ing ridiculous .. kids need to man up somehow otherwise in 10yrs we'll have double the pancyness of gen-y emo's upon us in the real world.

Jim has a good point. Although I thought playing the "won't somebody please think of the children" card & wrapping them up in cotton wool was still classed as PC gone wrong. So fail subject is fail, my bad!

Maybe it's because they have fluoride in their water.

so when are they gonna ban the other level2 'risks' like cricket n wotnot :P

that'd be un-australian, apparently. also, that's f***ing ridiculous. how are the boys gunna look up the girls skirts now?!?!

PC = political correctness. darkjedi is too retarded to spell it.

I think Jim knows that, it's just that it doesn't seem like an issue related to being politically correct, instead it seems to be more about avoiding liability for injury.

man, that's part of going to primary school... doing like the 5 man base human pyramids and f***ing yourselves up... god damn this generation is gonna be the softest little pricks, no physical abuse by parents, no hurting themselves in school.... zzz

harden the f*** up kids!

ohh i'm sorry. c'mere

isn't this a liability issue?

even if it is, thats like banning kids from falling over. its not like you need any school funded equipment to do a round-off or whatever

man i would be cartwheelin the s*** out of everything if I still could :(

just saw this on tv on today tonight or aca...

what an absolute joke.

the world has indeed gone completely f***ing mad.

You can blame anyone that has used no win no pay lawyer to sue someone for their own f*** up.

can't think of anything i'd enjoy more than accompanying a student to hospital with a neck injury!

life is tough

The parents of that school should be speaking to the Principal and sorting out the nonsense instead of whinging about it to newspapers.

Saw this on the news this morning - what a load of bs. I appreciate this is the world we live in/law suits can come from nearly anything these days, BUT how about just teaching kids the danger of certain activities/ways to avoid injuries (if we're trying to be careful here about injuries) rather than telling them they can't do normal children things like playing, which is important for their development...

Injuries and children go hand in hand. Telling a child they can't do a cartwheel won't stop them; that's not how kids work/their mind works differently. Teaching them about dangers is the realistic thing to do imo.

man I remember getting well busted at sports day one year for entering in the 100m hurdles and then dive-rolling over every hurdle along the way.

Was worth it though.

As the late George Carlin said

"Next stop, grade school. Grade school where he wont be able to play tag because it encourages victimization. And he wont be allowed to play dodgeball because its exclusionary and it promotes aggression. Standing around is still ok. Standing around is still permitted, but it wont be for long because sooner or later some kid is gonna be standing around and his foot will fall asleep, and his parents will sue the school and it'll be goodbye f***ing standing around"

Too true. I'm still waiting for it to happen

last edited by DM at 18:01:56 27/Aug/08

haha so true

thread needs more cement

and upskirting

This whole thing is so farking rediculous.

Once this came out there was a segment on the Merick Rosso and Kate Richie radio show where people were calling in and talking about crazy rules at their kids schools.

One mother called and said her girls went allowed to take/play elastics at school anymore.
Another mother said that all balls have been banned at the school during student break times (i.e. only have balls the school provide at designated phys ed times). So thats no handball or anything! (Im a big handball fan!)
Anyway, she went on to say the boys are so desperate for something to do they have invented this game where they have to use a school hat as a ball substitute.

I think thats apauling.

i think your spelling is appalling :p

THEY SHOULD BAN HOMEWORK!! LOL

man i remember good old death ball (like hand ball but if u f*** up u gotta run about 50m to to this way, which got increasingly smaller... and on the right was a bunch of windows from class rooms... the amount of shattered windows we collected was pretty impressive.. so were the bowling ball size bruises on our backs from each other throwing the ball :D

was actually having a chat with this to my mum last night.. she's the first aid officer of her workplace, if she physically hands a panadol to someone and something happens to them.. they can legally sue her... whatever happened to consenting to take the pill... sigh the worlds f***ed.

Another mother said that all balls have been banned at the school during student break times (i.e. only have balls the school provide at designated phys ed times).

Screw that, they should be telling their kids to ignore stupid rules like that and keep playing the way they should.

I remember playing Wall Brandy at school. So much fun. You had to stand against a wall while one person pegs a tennis ball at everyone against it. Last person who manages not to get hit wins, then becomes the thrower.

last edited by Tollaz0r! at 15:16:29 28/Aug/08

i think your spelling is appalling :P

Yeah, it really is :S And always has been.
Ive resigned myself to the fact that it always will be :)

Another mother said that all balls have been banned at the school during student break times (i.e. only have balls the school provide at designated phys ed times). So thats no handball or anything! (Im a big handball fan!)

That's just f***ed!
Handball rocked!

man i remember good old death ball

it was called bash ball you bash ball noob

Another mother said that all balls have been banned at the school during student break times (i.e. only have balls the school provide at designated phys ed times).

yeah I was at primary school at hilliards state about 8 years ago. And I remember we weren't to play handball or anything in breaks.
even before school, we weren't allowed, and f*** me it was boring...

no wonder our kids are fat these days,...

I remember we played handball and someone hit the ball down a stormwater drain and this big unit kid went down to get it and when he was climbing out the gate dropped and sliced half of his middle finger of, it was f***ing henious and he was all like "AUAUUUGGGHHHHHRRRGGHHH" i could hear him from way down in the sandpit where me and Fraser used to hang out and tell Abo jokes

They didnt ban handball tho.

I remember playing Wall Brandy at school. So much fun. You had to stand against a wall while one person pegs a tennis ball at everyone against it. Last person who manages not to get hit wins, then becomes the thrower.

Dead duck ;)

That game was crazy... I remember the thrower used to do a fake peg, and everyone would turn and duck and curl up... then he would pop someone right in the back of the head or the spine. We used to play it sooo close to the wall (probably just over 5m) that the tennis ball would make a massive THWACK next to your face like a gunshot.

We were playing that game all the way through to grade 12, there was a retarded kid that would come play with us, so many LOL's.

The game wasn't even really fun, it was just brutal.

last edited by CHUB at 11:34:02 30/Aug/08

The game wasn't even really fun, it was just brutal.

But that is what made it fun!

punch the person with the footy was closer to brutal I reckon
my 5th metacarpal will never forgive me

ah yes

mugby