Safety Has Come Out to Play

Faced with a new state law tightening the rules on playground safety, schools throughout Orange County are scrapping aged swings and slides this summer and replacing them with updated equipment.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, more than 200,000 children with injuries related to playground equipment visit emergency rooms nationwide each year. Most injuries are caused by falls.

A state law that took effect in January calls for initial playground safety inspections by October and full compliance with recommended federal standards by 2003. Wood play structures, for example, once trendy, now are recommended for replacement because of the potential for splinters in children’s skin and deterioration and splitting of the wood.

Those standards also specify measurements such as the angle of a slide’s slope, how far individual swing seats should be spaced and how deep cushioning materials on the ground should go.

Most school districts are moving in new equipment piecemeal, as money and time become available. Others, such as the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, can haul in slides and swings in one fell swoop, thanks to a bond measure passed last month.

All the digging and moving were in the works before a jury awarded $1.4 million last month to an Aliso Viejo family for injuries suffered when a 7-year-old boy fell from the monkey bars at Oak Grove Elementary School. The boy’s arm was broken, and because of unusual complications, he lost permanent use of the arm, according to the family’s lawyer. Officials with the Capistrano Unified School District said their playgrounds are safe and that the boy’s complications were unusual. The school system is expected to appeal. The district is not replacing playground equipment this summer because many of its schools are relatively new and much of its play equipment meets updated standards.

But for other school districts, the judgment “just sort of reaffirmed that we’re going in the right direction,” said Steve McMahon, an assistant superintendent in Fountain Valley School District.

McMahon’s district will replace equipment at half of its eight elementary schools this summer, and the other half will catch up next year.

“We’ve found that a lot of the old galvanized-steel structures have openings that are too wide, allowing heads to fit or legs to get caught,” McMahon said.

Safety comes at an expense.

A new play structure and adequate ground cover to cushion falls can push the cost of a play area to $50,000.

Some state grant funds are available to defray the costs, and more are expected to be available in coming years before the 2003 compliance deadline.

In the meantime, PTA involvement can be instrumental in replacing outdated equipment. Rancho Canada Elementary in Lake Forest should have new equipment for playtime by September after two years of PTA fund-raising.

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After deciding that the existing wood playground structures caused too many splinters and needed other safety adjustments, Rancho Canada’s PTA made new equipment its goal.

With fund-raisers like a jog-a-thon, concession stand sales at Little League games and contributions from local businesses, the PTA scraped together $45,000, said Denise Beever, co-chairwoman of a playground committee and the mother of a fourth-grader.

“We’ve all really wanted this for a number of years,” Beever said. “The structures are really old and dilapidated. We want our kids to be safe when they’re out there.”

Barring similar parent efforts, other schools in Saddleback Valley Unified probably will have to wait a year or two to get new structures.

But even smaller adjustments, such as covering exposed bolts and ensuring metal hooks are closed, can prevent minor injuries.

“If a kid runs by and catches their skin on a bolt, they’re going to leave behind skin on that bolt,” said Tom McKeown, Saddleback’s maintenance and operations supervisor. “So we . . . put acorn nuts over the bolt.”

Saddleback completed its playground inspections last fall and has put together a list of needed improvements, McKeown said. Minor adjustments that can be done in-house have been taken care of, and future funding will determine when more major changes are made.

With children, though, there’s a difference between the use playgrounds were designed for and how they are actually used when mischievous young minds invent more exciting activities.

McKeown remembers jumping from the monkey bars for fun as a child, and he suffered a broken arm as a result.

“Just because we have new surfacing and new equipment doesn’t mean no one’s going to get hurt,” Beever said. “There’s always an inherent danger to any playground equipment.”

But the regulations, along with adequate supervision, will reduce the risk of injury, safety advocates say.

And the new structures have other benefits, such as wheelchair-accessible swings and platforms and built-in games like tick-tack-toe.