Middle School Bans Balls, Tag in Interest of Recess Safety

Play ball - as long as it's not with a hard ball.

A Long Island middle school has banned footballs and baseballs at recess.

Even cartwheels and rough games of tag are ruled out, unless supervised by a coach, at Weber Middle School in Port Washington, officials said.

Superintendent. Kathleen Maloney told WCBS-TV the ban was prompted by a string of injuries.

"Some of these injuries can unintentionally become very serious," Maloney said, "so we want to make sure our children have fun but are also protected."

Long Island Jewish Medical Center ER director Dr. Salvatore Pardo told the station that he has been seeing a number of middle-school-age children with "head injuries, bumps [and] scrapes" and he is "worried about concussions."