From The Times...
Kissing game chased out as a health risk
BY JOHN O'LEARY, EDUCATION EDITOR
FIVE-YEAR-OLDS have been banned from playing kiss chase in the school
playground because their head teacher fears that the "exchange of body
fluids" could be a health risk.
The game went too far for Maureen FitzGerald, head of Cheynes Infant
School at Luton, Bedfordshire, when some children started putting
their tongues into other pupils' mouths. She told parents in a letter
that the school could not condone such "inappropriate behaviour".
Education officials backed Mrs FitzGerald yesterday, arguing that
unwanted physical attention could cause distress. But Iona Opie, the
chronicler of children's games, said the action was the latest in a
series of "hysterical reactions" to innocent playground games.
Mrs Opie said that even marbles had been banned in some schools
recently, adding: "It is just another hysterical reaction to games
that have been played safely for generations." Kiss chase dates from
the Victorian era, when it spread to schools from a more adult version
played in Scottish farmyards.
Luton's "French kiss chase", played by children aged between four and
seven, may owe more to copying clinches on television.
Parents outside the school supported the head teacher. Lynn Doyle
said: "I think it was a small number of children involved but once one
tried to put a tongue inside a mouth it could quickly spread. We are
all concerned about meningitis and it was quite right for her to put a
stop to kissing like that." Another parent said: "If my seven-year-old
child came home and said a boy had his tongue in her mouth I would be
the first to be at the school complaining."
Luton Education Authority said it was not unusual for heads to ban the
game. "Many other schools nationwide have found that children have
responded favourably to the banning of games that involve unwanted
physical attention."
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