On Dec. 20 2024 at the Mendocino K-8, there was a ban on dodgeballs and all games containing them. In my personal opinion, along with many others, I think it’s terrible. The reason they banned it in the first place is because apparently it was deemed “too dangerous”, but I think that makes little-to-no sense because there are much more dangerous games than throwing around fairly soft foam balls, like softball, which we have been learning.

I interviewed a few students and they very much agree, saying things such as, “It’s just chucking foam around, the worst it can do is feel like a slap to the face!” – Ryder V., “I hate it , it’s dumb (referring to ban).” – Neveah P., “Dodgeball was the best game and it was a horrible decision to ban it” – Dominic F., and “It’s stupid because there’s no real injuries that can happen unless it’s a hard ball” Kaylee-Jean M. I also interviewed a few of the K-8 staff who had vastly different responses to the students, saying “People need to be more flexible.” – Josh P. and “It’s a good idea to ban dodgeball.” – Nicole G. I also interviewed Kim, our principal, and she said that it was banned because we’d been playing it for so long and she wanted to switch it up. Technically it’s less of a ban and more “put on hold”, but I shall continue to call it a ban for consistency.

One of the 4th graders, Delilah C., even made a petition to bring dodgeball back, which got almost 70 names, but when I emailed the new P.E. teacher, Oakley M., about this and she said she didn’t receive any petition, so I went back to Delilah to get more information and here is what she said. She said that she had almost 70 names on the petition when in P.E. class she overheard the teacher say she heard about someone starting a petition and how they’d be in big trouble if they were caught, which made Delilah scared someone would snitch on her, so she decided to cancel the petition.

But what about what I think? I think that banning dodgeball is a really dumb idea. The reason we’ve played it so much is because it’s a good solid game and the argument of “people were getting hurt” doesn’t stand up very well because, let’s be honest,  you’re probably more likely to get hurt being hit with something like a basketball, which we quite regularly use. So what do we do about this? Well, fellow students —parents even— I want you to try and brainstorm your own ideas. We need to do something about this ban to bring dodgeball back. For years dodgeball has been a core part of P.E. class and it isn’t something you can simply take away like that. So hopefully, with enough perseverance we can bring one of the best P.E. games back to this school.