Playground Safety for Teachers

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 200,000 children go to hospital emergency rooms annually because of playground-related accidents. While this number includes home playgrounds, the highest number of incidents occurs among children ages 5 to 9, and those injuries most often occur at school. Teachers must work to be vigilant about ensuring children are safe on school playgrounds through various safety and supervision methods.

Significance

• While most injuries on playgrounds are minor, some 147 children die annually from playground accidents, according to the CDC. The top two reasons are strangulation (such as when a child gets a swing cord wrapped around her neck) and falls from tall equipment. Teachers need to understand and enforce playground safety to help make sure students stay safe.

Preparation

• Schools can benefit from holding playground safety education meetings with all staff members who will be on hand during recess. A publication from the Panhandle Area Educational Consortium (PAEC) on Florida’s gulf coast suggests all staff members who will supervise children need to be trained in CPR and basic first aid. These staffers also need to know the procedure for supervising remaining children while notifying someone about an injury.

Education

• Some sources, such as PAEC, stress the importance of teachers reviewing playground safety issues with students when seasons change. PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, has a curriculum available online that gives teachers books and multimedia resources to use for these lessons. Teachers should review all specific rules as well as what to do if there is a problem, such as getting a limb stuck in a piece of equipment.

Review

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission has a simple worksheet available that shares all of the major issues to note on playgrounds. While maintenance workers likely are tasked with playground safety issues, teachers should be on the lookout for these problems as well. Open S-hooks or rusted, serrated edges on equipment are playground safety issues that should be addressed quickly.

Damage Control

• Despite teachers’ best efforts, students will get injured on playgrounds. Teachers need enough playground safety education to know how to stop minor problems and how to get help with major ones. Keeping the injured student isolated until help arrives is of major importance. Teachers on the playground also should work quickly to make sure the offending equipment is not used until school officials complete an investigation of the incident.