State Exercises Little Control, Enforcement Over School Playgrounds

Snow covers the playground at Glenn Duffy Elementary School in Gravette on Thursday December 12, 2013. The school conducts regular in-house inspections of their playgrounds in addition to official state inspections, and when two bolts on this jungle gym were found to be protruding too far the school repaired the problem within a week according to Gravette Public Schools Facilities and Transportation Director Richard Carver.
Snow covers the playground at Glenn Duffy Elementary School in Gravette on Thursday December 12, 2013. The school conducts regular in-house inspections of their playgrounds in addition to official state inspections, and when two bolts on this jungle gym were found to be protruding too far the school repaired the problem within a week according to Gravette Public Schools Facilities and Transportation Director Richard Carver.

A 9-year-old boy died from his injuries when an unanchored, movable soccer goal on a Bentonville playground fel on him in 2011.

That same year, an 11-year-old girl needed internal stitches and 16 external stitches after she hurt herself at a Fayetteville school playground.

Fast Fact

Equipment

On public playgrounds, more injuries among children occur on “climbers” than on any other equipment.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

An 11-year-old Mountain Home boy lost a finger while playing on a school slide in 2012.

Despite injuries on public, elementary school playgrounds, the state has changed little to make sure playgrounds are maintained and safe, said Terry Granderson, assistant director of the Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities & Transportation.

The division is responsible for inspecting school facilities. Inspectors look for items such as working lights, working fire alarms and roof maintenance. They also review playgrounds, Granderson said.

Between January 2012 and December 2013, five Northwest Arkansas public school playgrounds had potential hazards noted in state maintenance reports, according to documents provided by Granderson.

By the Numbers

Playground Injuries

• More than 200,000 children 14 and younger are treated in emergency rooms nationwide after playground-related injuries.

• About 75 percent of nonfatal injuries on playground equipment happen on public playgrounds, mostly at schools and daycare centers.

• About 45 percent of playground-related injuries are severe fractures, internal injuries, concussions, dislocations and amputations.

Source: www.cdc.gov fact sheet.

Those schools — Decatur, Gentry, Gravette, Lincoln and Siloam Springs — had issues ranging from missing nuts on play equipment at Glenn Duffy Elementary School in Gravette to a cracked wall that held fall compost at Southside Elementary School in Siloam Springs.

School officials said the problems were fixed immediately.

Granderson said he didn’t know of any Northwest Arkansas public school with major maintenance playground problems, but tracking the number of injuries reported on public school facilities is difficult, said Ed Barham, state Health Department spokesman. The department couldn’t readily provide statistics showing the number of injuries on playgrounds, he said.

School officials have looked more carefully at their playgrounds since the soccer goal fell and killed Jonathan Nelson in Bentonville on Jan. 26, 2011, he said. That moment changed playground safety for local school officials.

“Everyone started paying more attention to their playground equipment,” Granderson said. “We’ve become more observant. It’s still on everybody’s minds.”

No One Responsible

School officials said they fix playground problems as soon as they learn of them, but the state has no power to enforce playground maintenance, said Kimberly Friedman, state Department of Education spokeswoman.

The state maintenance report is a checklist where inspectors check a box if they see problems such as “possible trip hazard.” Sometimes inspectors make comments, Granderson said. Division officials walk through playgrounds looking for lose metal or missing nuts and bolts, he said. The state doesn’t have formal policies to make school officials fix the equipment, Friedman said.

It’s up to school districts to look at their playgrounds once a month and fix problems, officials said.

With only six division inspectors to look at between 6,000 and 7,000 public schools statewide, schools can go years without seeing a state inspector, Granderson said.

Among 58 public elementary schools in Benton and Washington counties, the division provided maintenance reports for only 13. That means 78 percent of Washington and Benton counties’ elementary schools didn't have state maintenance reports.

Of those provided, inspectors found no problems with several schools, including three in Fayetteville.

School officials where problems were found say the system in place works. The state isn’t needed to make sure playgrounds are safe because school staff want to keep children safe, said Randy Barrett, Gentry school superintendent.

“We’re going to be trying to make sure we have a safe school and safe playgrounds for kids to come to every day — whether the state wants us to do it or not,” Barrett said.

Not everyone is satisfied with the system.

Nathan Nelson, the father of Jonathan Nelson, said more oversight is needed on playgrounds in general. No specialist is required to review playgrounds and make sure schools are following standards; no agency can fine schools for not fixing problems and not all schools buy liability insurance, Nelson said. Schools can’t be sued when something goes wrong, Nelson said.

“I don’t think anything has been done to improve or change the processes that were in place since Jonathan’s death,” Nelson said. “The state is never going to take responsibility for anything.”

‘What Good Is It?’

After Jonathan’s death, the state passed Arkansas Code 20-7-137, called “Jonathan’s Law,” to mandate soccer goals be anchored, but, like playgrounds, no one is designated to enforce the law on soccer goals, Nelson said.

“The reality is even with Jonathan’s Law that’s in place, without checking it, what good is it? What good does that law do when no one is enforcing it?” Nelson asked.

Proposed fines, oversight and general playground safety were stripped from the law so it would pass, said Donna Hutchinson, a former state representative from Bella Vista. Hutchinson was a leader in the review of soccer goal and playground safety in 2011. She was a co-sponsor of Jonathan’s Law. She left the state Legislature in 2012 because of term limits.

The state soccer association and public schools opposed the legislation, Hutchinson said.

“(The schools) were against one law, one rule, one regulation, for all schools across the state,” Hutchinson said.

She said requiring schools to carry liability insurance might encourage them to be safer and satisfy the need for more oversight, but school officials told her requiring that might make education more costly.

Public school districts aren't required to carry liability insurance because they cannot be sued for negligence, said Kristen Garner, staff attorney for the Arkansas School Boards Association.

Without being able to sue, the Nelsons decided to file a claim against the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which ran an after-school program on the playground where Jonathan had his accident. The complaint was dismissed in 2012, but this year, the state awarded the family $375,000.

As part of the settlement, Human Services officials also agreed to make changes. So far, they have changed inspections and are on the right path, Nelson said. Amy Webb, Department of Human Services spokeswoman, didn't provide information on the changes at the department by Thursday.

“I think playground safety, in and of itself, and education of playground safety is not what it should be,” Nelson said.

Parents should inspect their schools’ playgrounds, he said. He wished he’d looked at the playground where Jonathan was playing.

“I just think parents need to be aware of what their kids are playing on,” he said.

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