Nanny State Update: NY Yanks ‘Risky’ Label for Kids Games
- Posted on April 20, 2011 at 7:53am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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ALBANY, N.Y. (The Blaze/AP) — Maybe they’re risky, but day camp games like tag, Red Rover and kickball are no longer at risk in New York after state health officials yanked a proposal that threatened the future of those mainstays of child’s play.
Towns, villages and other camp operators had begun revamping upcoming indoor summer programs after the Department of Health sent out a long list of familiar games and activities it said presented a “significant risk of injury” and needed to be regulated more closely.
But after a state senator’s call Friday for a delay in the regulation generated a buzz of news reports, the department reversed course Tuesday, saying the rules proposed under the previous administration were too specific.
“The practical effect is that we are not going to get that detailed and into micromanagement,” department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said of the decision.
She said the department will continue gathering information during a comment period that ends May 16 and will formulate new safety regulations that are broader and deal more with potentially dangerous conditions than specific games.
The regulations are required under a 2009 law meant to close a loophole that allowed indoor day camps to operate without the same state oversight applied to outdoor day camps, targeting “nonpassive recreational activities with significant risk of injury.” The law took effect April 1.
State Sen. Patricia Ritchie of Watertown sent a letter to the state health commissioner asking for reconsideration of the regulations after hearing from a local mayor.
“It’s overregulation by the state of things that have been around for years and years,” Ritchie wrote.
On Tuesday, Richie, a Republican whose district includes three mostly rural north-central New York counties, said she was pleased by the reversal.
“At a time when our nation’s No. 1 health concern is childhood obesity, I am very happy to see that someone in state government saw we should not be adding new burdensome regulations by classifying tag, Red Rover and Wiffle Ball as dangerous activities,” she said. “I am glad New York’s children can continue to steal the bacon and play flag football and enjoy other traditional rites of summer.”
The proposal would have revised the definition of a summer day camp to include potentially risky organized indoor group activities like archery and rock climbing – as well as things like kickball, tag and Wiffle Ball.
Ritchie said that would have required camps in many smaller towns and villages to add staff such as nurses and pay $200 for a state permit. Other critics argued the regulation was a hysterical approach that stood to take all the fun out of summer.
“I never got hurt; maybe scraped my knee once in a while, but that was it,” Kimberly Baxter of Queens, a 27-year-old mother of a 1-year-old girl, told the Daily News of New York.
—
Associated Press writer George M. Walsh contributed to this report.
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Comments (58)
Dano62
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 6:50pmCrap! I guess I‘ll have to forget about my plan to move to NY and start ’Dan‘s Lawn Dart Camp for Toddlers’.
Report Post »vtech61
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 6:50pmMan, does anyone STILL live in that cesspool?
(Known as NY)…
If U got the bucks to leave… DO IT NOW.
Report Post »If you don’t. well.
We will see you on CNN, along with dawg_gawd…
(all the libs who where ‘hijacked’ by the socialists)..
begging us for food and ammo.
Advena
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 4:43pm‘poverty.sucks’ wrote “Their own kids rebelled, kicking and screaming out labels of their own”
I wonder though if these strange people actually do have children.
Report Post »Giveitrevolution
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:51pmthey tried to do what?!
Report Post »Giveitrevolution
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:50pmis this a joke?!
Report Post »Giveitrevolution
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:49pmwhat?!
Report Post »Tractorboy
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:42pmI’m sure when they do pass this law, requiring medical staff for summer camps and such, the camps and such, will be able to get anybody that knows a little something about first aid and putting superman band-aids on, right. There wouldn’t be a requirement that you hire a CSEA union health care worker? You wouldn’t now have some snoop working for you that would be reporting you to OSHA or the EPA or on and on?
Report Post »What other businesses have risky things going on? They could make this a requirement for just about any business.
Freedom1984
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:27pmI live in Albany, NY and when I heard the story…. i was so appalled! Red Rover, Red Rover…..send BO over… (and then we will just let him drop….) we won’t catch him!!
Capture the flag??? My gosh… how we played that as children… I would love to get a capture the flag game going now…
Anyone want to join me??????
Report Post »bruce_baker
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:16pmThe Democratic-Socialists have always been a “problem in search of a solution”. They’re career politicians, so they must constantly prove that they’re “doing a good job”. If there isn’t a ready problem that they can get involved in, they create one!
What nobody has mentioned that really rankles me is the cost factor. While the salary of whatever officials were involved in this would still have to be paid, they could have spent the time productively instead of on this crap. Perhaps they could review the books for silly laws like this that need to be repealed.
Then there are the actual government expenses involved in starting to implement this. All those printing and mailing costs could have been saved.
Then you have the cost to the businesses that had to take the time to deal with the possible ramifications of having to comply with this.
At least the government costs don’t matter. This is, after all, NY where they LOVE to pay more and more taxes.
Report Post »sandyn
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 11:11amMy son in law went back to school to get an admin degree so he could be a principal and the two year course was all about theoretical situations at school and the question was always can we get sued. It is the only question that is asked about anything concerning schools, can we get sued. I am sure that it is the same with any other business involving children.
Report Post »Sinista MACE
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:52amYea right, this was just a trial balloon to see if you allow them to do whatever the hell they want. Even the most ridiculous things.
Report Post »joey g
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:40amwe used to play dodgeball with a baseball hardball…
Report Post »DangerClose
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:23amThis is nothing new here in the old Empire State. These idiots have ruined what was at one time, the greatest state in the Union. We have been on a steep decline since Rockafellar. Drive through upstate NY, get 5 miles outside of a city and you will see what the liberals have done to this state. Factories shut down, stores closed, Main Streets destroyed, and family farms being auctioned off at an alarming rate. The state that produced more goods and services than the entire Confederacy, is now the laughinstock of the Union. And for those who are forced by circumstance to stay, it is more like a prison, than a home.
Report Post »Freedom1984
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:31pmI hear you. I grew up in the Adirondacks… and most people only think of NY as the City…
and to see what the Librals did to this state…
and to think that the Albany Legislature is pretty much just as dirty as Chicago’s… it makes me embarrased to be a resident of New York.. Land of the TAXES, and red tape… and Chuck Shoomer…. and Hillary Clinton….. and…..now Governor Cuomo………………….
Report Post »geonj
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:13am“But after a state senator’s call Friday for a delay in the regulation generated a buzz of news reports, the department reversed course Tuesday,”…
Report Post »this is what the media is supposed to do, and this is the kind of oversight the media is supposed to have.
1stzookid
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:06am@Ironmaan
And when they finish that whoever did this should be put in a looney bend. You know he had to have fell or something when he was a kid. I think they are crazy
Report Post »POIPNE
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:34amMore likely he/she was never allowed to do anything fun as a kid and doesn’t want anyone else to have the opportunity. Better to have them sit and play video games so they won’t get hurt (sarcasm intended).
Report Post »krispy01
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:41amNew York ‘yanks’ anyway…
Report Post »noleftturn
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:10amNY State Health Commisioner, you will stay after school and write on the blackboard 500 times, I AM A MORON, I AM A MORON, I AM A MORON…………. . Please wear your latex free rubber gloves to prevent possible skin irritations, eye goggles to prevent chalk dust eye damage, respirator mask to prevent possible inhalation of said chalk dust, ear protection for finger nail on the chalk board annoying screech, blah, blah, blah……..
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:25amIt is about power and control. If you allow it….step two
Report Post »Beckaj
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:02amYou just can’t make up outrageous scenarios any funnier than what is really happening. These stories are good ones to share with the kids though. It brings it to their level of understanding.
Report Post »proudamerican1990
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:52amI can top the ridiculousness of this.
I was really board back home maybe 6 years ago or so. I was looking through some old papers, and happened to see PTA minutes from elementary school.
A parent tried to bring a motion up (not sure about all proper terms or whatever)— He wanted to ban running at recess. Running. Not jumping off from the top of the jungle gym, Not the swing set (both of which have much more potential for injury than running) but running.
Really??
I here people my age talking about scars they got from when a little kid, and all that.
Now, the next generation is going to cry at the smallest scratch because they have been babied by the schools.
Now, I don’t have a kid, and I really don‘t know how I’d feel if my kid broke his nose in a dodge ball game. I’d probably say “part of the game boy” and life would go on.
But maybe not. I’ll know when that time comes
Report Post »MidWestMom
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:29amhaving raised 3 boys, just a friendly FYI. Head wounds, minor or major, Bleed A LOT. It can scare the crap out of the “inexperienced”. Seriously, a 1/4″ cut can make them look like the victim of a chain saw massacre. With a minor injury, clean the cut & slap a butterfly bandage on it. Save your money ’cause thats what the ER & Doc will do.
Report Post »Derek01
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:44amWhat’s really dangerous is keeping these morons in a government job. They should be fired. It’s non-stop with these morons. They continually try to see what they can get away with under the guise of – for our own good. They are so insulated and protected in their government job they lose their mind. They need a boot in the rear and be sent out into the real world.
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:41amWe are “on them”, guys, and that is a good thing.
What we need to be is one step ahead of them. We need to quit running to catch up to them.
Anybody a “plant” on the inside of the progressives???? Somebody with courage to expose their plans ahead of what they are doing??? Any GOD kids in there? If so, give us a heads up and we can pull the crappy carpet right out from under them.
Let’s all pray that GOD will give us a “heads up” and lead us to some creative thinking so we can run these guys in circles, like they’ve been running us.
It’s time for a reverse “Little Black Sambo” action, if you ask me.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:37amA lot of people are on them now Kick but, once Glenn is no longer on at 5:00, a lot won’t be. I hope he has a good game plan for the next phase.
Report Post »BeeAlert
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:36pmUm, do you mean run backwards around a tree until the butter turns back into tigers?
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:38amI’m on total disability from the government from a tragic wiffle ball accident.
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:45amLOL! Me, too. I’ve never gotten over being the last one chosen….. *sigh* It almost sent me into muslimehood, but I was rescued from the brink by common sense and a great game of touch football.
Report Post »POIPNE
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:07am@GONZO
Report Post »You guys had WIFFLE BALLS? We were poor and just threw dirt clods at each other. Being a kid is no fun anymore.
Freedom1984
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:36pmHa ha ha…. yeah Gonzo me too….
Only my full disability injury came from Dodge Ball….
Once my arm got hit…
and i was told I could never type again……
That sent me into a complete downward spiral…
the teasing i had endured….
the pain i had suffered…….
the long nights of not sleeping due to nightmares…..
oh, wait……
I AM TYPING THIS….
guess Dodge Ball really isn’t that bad!!!! lol
Report Post »commentkazi
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:20am“The practical effect is that we are not going to get that detailed and into micromanagement,” department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said of the decision.
Sure. Practical.Right.
Report Post »beckwill
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:17amSo, back to the asinine drawing table for the liberals?
Report Post »Blackhawk1
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:46amNo more toys in Happy Meals! Oh wait they already did that one.
Report Post »DogWithA_Bone
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:58amDodgeball has already been outlawed…
Report Post »maybe they can go after those pesky bikes…
stink they already did that with helmet laws…
I bet they could now legislate knee and elbow pads…
Hmmm…maybe even a pillow and some bubble wrap…
there is always that super dangerous tree climbing thing…
I know we should cut down all the trees because some kid might climb up it and get stuck or fall…
that would fix everything
(note: sarcasm)
Taquoshi
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 12:54pmNaw, you gotta come up with something like a video game that simulates riding a bicycle, or playing tag or dodge ball. Oh, doesn’t the Wii do that already? And didn‘t I see a clip on America’s Funniest Videos the other night when one kid accidently clocked another while playing with a Wii. Maybe they should outlaw them, too.
Report Post »DimmuBorgir
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 7:56amhmmmm, think glenn’s coverage of this might have changed their minds??
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:02amPossible.
More likely is that the number of people awakening to the moves of the progressives of the left and the right is growing, and they are taking the stand for what is right.
Report Post »grandmaof5
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:03amFail to believe camps were set to meet these requirements! Without a fuss? Had I been a parent sending a child to a camp that bowed to those stupid regulations, I think I would have looked for a camp in another state.
Report Post »lovenfl3
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:10amThis is a great example of the “nudge” that liberals are famous for. This is onlythe first step in the process. Even though they retracted, this will be back. It’s how liberals work. Next time it will have a poll tested name to go with it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIMRNUGXxII
Report Post »Ironmaan
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:14amWhat we need to know is WHO initiated this ridiculous regulation in the first place. Once that information is found out, that person should be made to account for his/her stupidity which amounted to an attack on “the folks”.
Report Post »http://guerillatics.com
poverty.sucks
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:15amTheir own kids rebelled, kicking and screaming out labels of their own.
Report Post »mrsmileyface
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:22amWe need to stand strong against these liberals 24/7. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Report Post »PA PATRIOT
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:25amIt was an idiotic idea to begin with.
Report Post »Perhaps….. just perhaps… common sense prevailed.
How about BB gun Army? Now thats a real kids game!
And we never wore eye protection. (stupid)
GhostOfJefferson
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:28am““The practical effect is that we are not going to get that detailed and into micromanagement,” department spokeswoman Claudia Hutton said of the decision.”
The practical effect is that they tried, and were caught. Nobody who has no intention of micromanaging something goes out and makes statements as were reported yesterday. Geez Louise, these people hold an awfully low estimate of human intelligence to think that they can pass off their idiocy with these kinds of remarks.
Report Post »randy
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 8:35am“At a time when our nation’s No. 1 health concern is childhood obesity
Really?
Child obesity is out #1 health concern?
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:45amOH, damn1 we can’t fleece the people this way…… guess we will have to triple auto license fees. hmnn
Report Post »Cemoto78
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 9:52amToo much government intervention in all of our lives. When do we say enough already? All forms of government are looking at every aspect they do or control to find ways to produce revenue in an effort to make ends meet. It‘s not like we all don’t pay enough taxes already, but they are searching for more and more ways to nickel and dime the citizens at every turn. This is truly a catastrophe in the making as inflation is coming in a big way and of course those who are already on the government doles will get waivers to keep them from paying these inventive fees and once again the average worker will have to tow the line. I’m getting really sick of paying for everyone else who could actually go out there and get a job, any job, but are too lazy or have found the easy way and have manipulated the system to stay on the government free ride. What happens when we tell the government we are not paying? Are they going to put us all in jail? Maybe it’s time we all decide to not pay and see what they (government bureaucrats) do when the revenue stops. These are really crazy times and people are being pushed to their limits, sooner or later there will be some push back and then we’ll see how a republic really works, maybe.
Report Post »1proudAmerican
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 10:35amThere are so many liberal parents here, many just go along with it. Give me a conservative state with citizens who actually have common sense and are not politically correct.
Report Post »BIGDAN63
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 11:00amThe time when a government needs to MICROMANAGE ITS CITIZENS, is the time that government needs to go.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 11:33amGames , Shmames
Look to the LAWYERS. It’s LAWYERS , making laws so that LAWYERS can steal money, It’s LAWYERS in the Gov , listening to TRIAL LAWYER friends, speaking to JUDGE LAWYERS . Get rid of most LAWYERS and most of Americas problems disappear.
Report Post »Dodge ball forever
sup3rm4n
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 12:30pmHow much influence does Glenn have??? Within minutes of breaking this story on T.V. last night N.Y. retracted this report. Funny!!!!!
Report Post »billjones4
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 1:36pmI’m sure if you asked our Ivy League educated president he would reply,
That had nuttin’ to do with it!”
Report Post »joan k
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 2:54pmThis is the same Health Care group that tried to mandate the H1N1 vaccine for all their health care workers in the state about a year and a half ago. They had to back down on that issue, too, after it was suggested that the then Health Commissioner Dr. Daines (who has since passed away) may have had a ethical dilemma. Apparently it was discovered that his wife worked for Goldman Sachs that helped to fund the vaccines. The suggestions was that he was going to be personally benefitting from the vaccine mandates in the state. He rescinded the order only an hour AFTER he was interviewed by a reporter over this discovery.
As a sub-contractor to a local county health department, I have decided to retire from my practice. There is no way that I can make any worthwhile money part time per diem and keep up with all the NY State health regulations, fees, and policies required of me. The whole agency over regulates EVERYTHING! I took a 10% pay this time last year and ended up having to add general liability to my already expensive mandated professional liablility this past year. NY is also the only state that requires I mention the county on my professional insurance which adds additional costs to me. I am not reimbursed for gas and my gas bills are going up. The state audits individual contractors as myself and they waste their money on auditing me and others as we do not bill directly to Medicaid or Medicare. Each time I have an audit this independent agency seems to have to make up questions just to keep their jobs. It is ridiculous and whenever I go I lose money bc I am not working, Now we are being required to put everything on computer which is going to be even more time consuming. In addition, I hear there is a possibility that there will be another decrease in pay. In the meantime, the state public employees continue to get their benefitts and raises. I have had enough and have decided to end my business this June. Luckily for me I can afford to leave my practice as my spouse still has a good job. As soon as he retires we will be moving out of the state.
Report Post »Marcobob69
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 3:06pmDo I detect Chucky Schumer’s hands all over this stupid bill?? Only from the fertile liberal progressive left leaning mind of Schumer could this bill have been “conceived”! Can you say NANNY STATE??? I KNEW you could!
Report Post »restorehope
Posted on April 20, 2011 at 3:27pmThis is absolute proof that publicizing the progressive’s attempts to control us really works. We need to keep up the pressure when they go after our individual freedoms because these progressives are not used to being challenged. And when they are challenged, they buckle. Don’t tread on me.
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