The Watford Borough Council in England has banned parents from supervising their children in public playgrounds, because they have not undergone criminal record checks.
Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure play areas in Watford while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence. The Watford Borough Council policy has been attacked as insulting and a disgrace by furious relatives who say they are being labelled as potential paedophiles.
Read the full story here: www.telegraph.co.uk
As with many similar examples of excessive caution (kitchen knives being sold with the warning they are sharp, for example), the council members involved in making the decision are probably more concerned about potential litigation than real risk.
ReplyDeletePut it this way: by doing this they lose nothing (other than annoy some people); if they don’t do anything, and a parent does turn out to be a paedophile, than they are going to be sued by someone for not acting. You know what people are like. It makes perfect sense from their point of view.
However the media may report it, this kind of behaviour is the result of an increasingly litigious public, not nutty councillors.
"Play rangers"?
ReplyDeleteIt's official. I've heard everything.
Simply because someone passes a criminal records check does not mean they are not a pedophile. It just means they have never been caught if they are one.
ReplyDeleteI had my criminal check done a few years back so I could supervise the boys high school basketball team (all of which were twice my size)in the school gym for practices while the teachers were on a work to rule strike.
Now these are the same boys who were allowed to ride in my van to and from their away games without any checks on me whatsoever.
Never made sense to me that I could have one alone in my van with no checks but had to be checked to sit in the bleachers and make sure they didn't kill each other during practice in a school that was full of people.
Play Rangers? I'll watch my own kid thanks. They should be worried about law suits from parents whos kid get shoved by another while the official Rangers are in charge.
I'm speechless.
ReplyDeleteAfter this manifestation of poor judgement, the members of the city council members shouldn't be allowed to make any decisions whatsoever - if not supervised by public "stupidity rangers". At least not until the next election!!
Love
D
I officially give up - "they" are ruling us into the ground.
ReplyDeleteI think I am going to sit close to my old tv then jump in the back of our station wagon and drive around without seatbelts.
Yeah I get what you're saying Simon, it's shameful that things have gotten so screwed up. Same in Queensland's gold coast, I remember reading they're talking about taking down all the coconut palms as they don't want to risk being sued from someone who gets hit in the head from a falling coconut.
ReplyDeleteFreakin' ridiculous, everything is someone else's fault. Let's blame the yanks, they bloody started it :-)
LOL. Play Rangers, now that is funny! I'm with Simon on this one. This sort of odd ruling will only increase as the world population expands, unless people start to accept some responsibility for themselves, and their actions, instead of litigating their lives away.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see the size of the lawsuit when a kid who was being supervised by a playranger gets hurt as his/her parent watched from behind the fence. Or do parents have to sign a release so that their kids can enter?
ReplyDeleteGood point T - it could just make things much worse for themselves.
ReplyDeleteWhat next? Happy Halloween to you.
ReplyDelete