Hands Off My Kid's Swing #LetThemPlay

by Kim D.

For a parent, the look of pure joy on a child's face is one to cherish. One such moment when my son was barely a year old was captured while he was swinging. Now that he is four, he claims the "swing" is still his favorite on the playground (I asked on the way to preschool just this morning to be certain). 

So you can imagine my relief, one more time, that we live in Texas and not in other places, like Richland, WA, or the swing he dearly loves might be banned. According to KEPRTV.com,  Swings are being phased out of Richland schools. The district says pressure from insurance companies over the liability is part of the issue. Swings are blamed for the most injuries of any play equipment. Richland School District already removed them from some campuses and will phase them out of the rest.

But why pick on swings and where is the study that proves swings are the most dangerous play equipment?  I could only find a study produced in 2001 from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission which claims

About one-half (53 percent) of the injuries involving public equipment occurred on climbers. About 60 percent of the injuries on climbers occurred on various configurations of overhead “horizontal ladders.” About two-thirds (67 percent) of the injuries involving home equipment occurred on swings.

The key word in this study, as it pertains to the dreaded swing, is "home equipment." A quick perusal on page eight depicts a chart that indicates "public" climber injuries were 53% while the "public" swing injuries were less than 20%. Therefore, most of the swing-related injuries were occurring at home, when children perhaps are not as monitored as well as they are on a public playground with multiple teachers and parents watching for risky play which could possibly lead to injury.

Personally, I would love to see the exact data insurance companies are using to support this claim about swings. As far as I can tell, this appears to be nothing more than one more example of government and schools taking charge of children's welfare.