School aims to curb fights, bullying with new approach

Blackburn Elementary is creating a playground that no longer breeds angry words or hurt feelings.

Assistant Principal Sandy Post said the school has seen problems on the playground where fights break out or with students who can’t participate in group games, like kickball or basketball.

“The positive behavior, intervention and support team identified the playground as an area with problems,” Post said. “It’s unstructured time. Kids would get frustrated because they couldn’t play successfully or couldn’t play at all. They would be in fights, pushing and shoving, saying you didn’t play this way or that way.”

The fights wouldn’t end on the playground. When students went back inside to the classroom, those angry feelings would still be there and the fights would sometimes continue.

“It never stops once you go inside,” Post said. “We’d see it with all grades, but certainly with the older students more.”

She said the school had discipline problems from the bus, students in the hallways and the playground. Administrators have already addressed the other two areas. On Sept. 8, they showed the students how they could still have fun at recess while not getting into confrontations over the games that were played.

“One sixth-grader said to me last year, ‘Recess time is our time to do whatever we want to and you just have to live with it,’” Post remembered. “He made my point. We needed to shift that mindset. This isn’t a free-for-all. It needs to be structured.”

Post had received a flyer about the Trouble-free Playground program by Curt Hinson. When she contacted him, she said it sounded similar to an annual PE conference she attends.

“You don’t have to be the most skilled or the fastest to participate in these games,” Post said.

That reassured Post. After consulting with others in the school system, Blackburn Elementary decided to participate in the new program, which involves more than a dozen new playground games that have little physical contact but keep the kids active. Several teachers trained on the new program and thought it would make a difference at the school. They came back and taught the games to the rest of the staff.

Many are twists on traditional games, such as 3-on-3 soccer. Others are new, such as tossing a ball to a student, trying to score in their hula-hoop and reach a certain score before the other student. Students select which games they want to play before they go outside each day, Post said. Students who don’t want to play those games can also walk on the track, jump rope or play on the playground equipment already outside.

“There’s no pushing or shoving in any of these games,” Post said. “Before, it was helter-skelter, do whatever hit them at the moment. Because some felt they couldn’t do the games, they wouldn’t even try.”

With the new games, that’s changed.

The students learned the games over two days, with the sixth-graders teaching the younger students the games.

Olivia Kittle and Ian Ray taught the younger students Tagalong. Groups of students in twos are attached to each other with stretchy bands. One student tries to tag a pair of students apart, snapping the Velcro. When they do, the student trades out with the one tagged.

Kittle said her favorite game was the 3-on-3 kickball.

“This kind is more fun and won’t cause as much trouble,” Kittle said.

Ray liked a modified version of football, in which there are four downs, and a person scores between two cones.

“I like this type of recess more, because there’s more to do, and people won’t get into fights,” he said.

Six-year-old Kayla Jones said she liked playing tagalong, but she also enjoys free play. She was glad that she still gets to play on the playground equipment the school has, like the swings.

Sixth-grader Anna Grace Throneburg said she was glad something was being done about the playground.

“This one guy got mad and started beating someone up over football, so it was banned,” she said.

Her friend, Lauren Ogle, said before they were taught the new games, the pair would usually walk around and talk during recess. Now, she said she’s excited about the games, which she said could also be played at home.

“I think this is going to be great,” Throneburg said.