From the “WTF” department…

USA Today: Australian school bans cartwheels

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — A school in northern Australia will review a ban on cartwheels, handstands and other gymnastic tumbles in the playground after a community backlash, the state education department said Wednesday.

Belgian Gardens State School in Townsville, Queensland, recently banned all unsupervised gymnastic activities outdoors in what it called an effort to protect students from injury.

Okay, what’s the point of even having a playground if kids aren’t allowed to hurt themselves on it? You know what we used to do for fun at my elementary school? We used to climb on top of the wooden fort in our playground and jump off! And then they took that out and build a new fancy playground on wood chips (splinters!) that had this metal corkscrew slide that was extra fun and extra dangerous in the winter when it got ice on it…

And kids don’t even need playground equipment to hurt themselves on. One time in kindergarten I skinned my hand really bad just by falling down. If you really want to keep the kiddies safe, for Pete’s sake, you might as well just lock them in a padded room.

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