Dangerous playground craze leaves children with broken bones
Children and teenagers are left with serious injuries, some of them even needing hospital treatment, due to a new playground craze.
The craze is known as “sweep them off their feet” or “sweep ’em down”, with school pupils using their ties to cause accidents. The tie is taken off, tied around another child’s ankle and pulled, leaving the victim flat on their face, as the Independent reports. Some children are left with broken bones after this.
This is what happened to Rebecca Smith’s 13-year-old daughter Ellanneh, according to the Croydon Advertiser.
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“Ellanneh went to school and I received a phone call around lunchtime saying Ellanneh had hurt herself.
“I didn’t go down there in the first place because they didn’t say she had broken her arm.
“My son Danny, who was with me at the time, said he would go down there.
“When he was there he rang up and said ‘she needs to go to hospital, Mum.’ He said straight away that it was broken.”
Ellanneh was rushed to the hospital and underwent surgery the next day. She has been resting at home ever since and claims to be afraid of returning to her school, Oasis Academy Coulsdon.
“The head of year turned round and said she didn’t know that game was happening but she previously said it had been going on for about a week,” Ellanneh’s mother said.
“This isn’t the first incident either. There have been other incidences around the school according to my daughter.”
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Oasis Academy Coulsdon responded, telling the Croydon Advertiser:
“Oasis Academy Coulsdon has no higher priority than the safety and personal well-being of all our young people.
“If ever there is an incident in which any of our students’ well-being might be at risk we always act immediately to make the situation safe.
“An incident took place at the academy last week during lunchtime in which one of our students was injured due to the unsafe behaviour of another.
“The principal [Andy Booth] has appropriately sanctioned the student responsible for their conduct, who has also apologised unreservedly. We have made clear to our student body that unsafe behaviour will not be tolerated.”
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