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Rest Easy: The Government is Addressing the Threat of America's Seesaws


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NY TimesCurrent federal guidelines state that fulcrum seesaws can be installed safely if car tires are embedded under the seats and adequate space is left around them in case of a fall. But they are not recommended for toddlers or preschoolers, and they take up a lot of space. So the reaction to the guidelines in New York City, and many other places, was just to phase seesaws out. …

In 2000, 55 percent of playgrounds around the nation had a seesaw, according to the National Program for Playground Safety. … By 2004, that number was 11 percent. …

In New York City, the old fulcrum seesaws were replaced over time by newer styles of equipment, like multilevel structures that integrate slides and climbing walls.

The main reason was safety. “New York City Parks has not installed seesaws for at least 30 years due to safety concerns,” said a spokesman, Sam Biederman.

Well thank God someone’s finally addressing the horrible scourge of the fulcrum seesaw. The proliferation of these center-balanced death traps has been a national scandal. And the whole time these silent killers have been making their way into our parks, our playgrounds, neighborhoods and even our schools, our leadership has done nothing.

I mean, what are we paying the National Playground Safety Program for, anyway? To stand idly by and watch our kids suffer under the cantilevered hazard which is tearing at the fabric of our society? They have a solemn duty to protect our kids and still these tragedies keep coming. How many more, Mr. Trump? How many more?!? How many twisted ankles, bruised tailbones and serious owies are our kids supposed to suffer before you people in Washington get serious about the teeter-totter threat and get this menace off America’s streets for good?

It’s moments like this when I wonder how any of us survived the nightmare of these Archimedian death machines. And dream of a world where seesaw fun will be eliminated from our kids’ lives, once and for all.