I think they've actually put a hold on getting rid of the swings. A state senator has asked the board to rethink the issue.
Here is the article from this morning's paper. It actually focuses more on Kanawha County which is where we live. I will fight to the death for our swing sets. My son is in 2nd grade and the swings are like therapy for him. It's his absolute favorite thing to do at recess.
http://www.dailymail.com/News/Kanawha/201009011032?page=2&build=cache
Kids still free-swinging
by Paul Fallon
Daily Mail Staff
Page 2 of 2
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Unlike their peers in Cabell County, elementary school children in Kanawha still can sail
into the air on swing sets.
The Cabell County Board of Education in mid-July voted to remove swing sets from elementary school playgrounds,
and staff has begun removing the equipment from 17 elementary schools, said Safety Manager Tim Stewart.
The swing sets were removed because of liability concerns and lawsuits filed for swing set injuries.
But Kanawha school officials do not believe swing set injuries are an issue in the county.
Beverly Jarrett, director of safety, says more accidents occur on other types of playground equipment such as slides
and jungle gyms.
"We don't see swings as being a liability issue," Jarrett said.
No playground injuries have been reported at any of Kanawha County's 46 elementary schools since the school year
began Aug. 20, Jarrett said.
However, from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, there were 15 serious playground injuries at elementaries, she said.
Kanawha school officials consider an injury serious if the child requires medical attention other than standard first
aid or if they miss a day of school, she said.
During that time period, seven injuries occurred on slides, she said. One of those injuries was a broken bone, two
were sprains, three were bruises/bumps and one was a cut.
Two broken bones and two cuts occurred on swing sets.
One broken bone and one sprain occurred on jungle gyms, one broken bone occurred on teeter-totters and a glider
injury resulted in one broken bone, she said.
Slides and jungle gyms led the pack with injuries from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, with six apiece, Jarrett said.
One head injury, which Jarrett said was not serious, as well as five broken bones occurred when children were
playing on jungle gyms, she said. Three broken bones, two cuts and one bruise occurred on slides.
Two broken bones resulted from injuries on swing sets, Jarrett said. No injuries occurred on seesaws around the
county, and one child sustained a broken bone and another a sprain on gliders, she said.
"And someone broke a bone when they got hurt running on the playground," she said.
School safety personnel inspect playground equipment at all elementary schools at least once a year. They will be
looking closely at both slides and jungle gyms at the schools because of the number of injuries occurring on those
pieces of equipment, she said.
Kids still free-swinging - Kanawha County - Charleston Daily Mail - We...
http://www.dailymail.com/News/Kanawha/201009011032?page=2&buil...
1 of 3 9/2/2010 8:15 AM
"And we'll be getting the message out to the teachers to pay special attention to the kids that are playing on the slides
and jungle gyms," Jarrett said.
"One of the things we stress is playground supervision. We want to make sure the teachers are watching the kids."
Changes were made to swing sets in Kanawha County about four years ago to reduce the school board's liability, she
said.
For example, all swing sets at county elementary schools were reduced to 8 feet in height. Another safety
improvement was to remove a swing from any sets that had three swings per section, Jarrett said.
Kanawha Superintendent Ron Duerring also does not believe the number of incidents on swing sets at county
elementary schools warrants their removal.
"But we'll continue to review this issue as we have always done," he said.
One kind of traditional playground equipment was removed from elementary playgrounds about five years ago
because of safety concerns, Duerring said.
Those were the traditional monkey bars with bars on the inside as well as the outer part of the equipment, he said.
The swing set ban in Cabell County was prompted by two lawsuits. In one case a child jumped from a swing set
"Superman style with arms extended," and broke his arm, Stewart said. That suit was settled for $20,000 in the past
year.
The other lawsuit, stemming from an injury on Oct. 13, 2009, is pending in Cabell Circuit Court, he said.
The mulch used as padding under and around the swings was an issue in the lawsuit that was settled, Stewart said. A
certain amount of mulch is required to be used as padding for the swing sets, he said.
For example, if a swing set is 8 feet tall, there must be 16 feet of mulch in front and 16 feet behind the swing. The
county also tries to maintain a mulch depth of 10 inches. The appropriate amount of mulch was not in place at the
swing in question, so the county was liable, he said.
Mulch can become a problem because it compacts and degrades, Stewart said. One option is to use rubberized
mulch, but Stewart worries that it might cause health problems in children in the future.
He said the substance is also very expensive. It could cost about $8,000 per swing set to place the appropriate
amount of material around the equipment. The county had 36 swing sets at the elementary schools, he said.
The rubberized material also would have to be replaced every seven years, so it could end up costing the county
around $576,000 over the next decade, he said. That is a large investment for a piece of playground equipment that
does not provide children with much exercise, he said.
In Kanawha County, there have been seven lawsuits involving playground equipment over the past six years,
Duerring said. He does not believe this is a level that warrants removal of specific equipment.
Only one of those lawsuits was settled out of court, said Jim Withrow, the attorney for the Kanawha County Board of
Education.
The injury occurred in 2004 when a child was hurt when a large sliver of wood from the mulch entered her body, he
said. The case was settled for $9,500, Withrow said.
The other lawsuits are still pending or have not moved forward in the court system, he said.
Contact writer Paul Fallon at paul.fal...@dailymail.com or 304-348-4817.
)
.....what has happened to personal responsibility????
If I had to fork over $20K to the parents, you can bet little Johnny would be bubblewrapped during recess from now on and only allowed to look at playground equipment from a distance......NEVER allowed to actually get on it again. "Sorry, Johnny, the playground is only for children who realize they are not Superman and whose parents won't sue the pants off the school." 
