Road Kill
“Mom, I had to go to the nurse’s office today,” my 5th grader said as we walked to the car after school.
“What happened?” I asked, wondering why someone from school hadn’t called me.
He pointed to a baseball-size, deep bruise on his arm that he said he’d gotten during recess. “I iced it for about 30 minutes,” he said, “and it still really hurts!”
He explained that there was a group of kids playing a game called Road Kill while he and other kids were swinging. He said the game is to try to run next to or behind the person swinging without getting hit. And if they do get hit? Well you guessed it: They’re road kill. He said he wasn’t sure who had hit him because it happened so fast, and then everyone left.
“Did the playground monitors see what happened? Did you tell your teacher?” I asked. “No the monitors were on the other side, and we had a sub today,” he said.
“We need to tell your teacher because someone else could break their nose, or poke an eye or worse,” I said. He agreed. So I told his teacher what had happened, and she informed the principal and the monitors and told her class not to play Road Kill anymore.
My son thanked me for saying something. But, a few days later, he said some kids were still playing Road Kill when the monitors weren’t looking. So we talked about how people make choices to do what’s right or to do what’s popular or thrilling, even though it’s wrong!
Blessings,
Mary Darr, Editor
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