Banning Tag?

I have heard stories like this one for a while now, but this is the first one that I have seen since having my blog, so I can now write a comment about it. This Colorado school has banned tag on its playground. Was it because someone got hurt? Not this time (well, at least not in my opinion). It was banned because children complained that "they were harassed and chased against their will." The answer is not banning the game of tag, especially since children are going to play it no matter what. Get a big group of kids together and chances are, the kids are going to begin a game of tag at some point. First, the teachers should monitor the situation, and if a child is bullying kids during the game of tag, make that child sit out. Discipline is a good thing, not a negative thing. Second, teach those who are being harassed and chased against their will to stand up for themselves. In the adult world we like tattletails just about as much as we did on the elementary playground. Teach them now how to be assertive. There is so much more that can be said about this since we aren't letting kids be kids, we aren't teaching kids the reality of the competitive adult world by treating them all equally in school, we aren't disciplining our kids, we are taking the fun out of being a kid at recess, etc., etc., etc.