Playground Safety Week a Success!

By: Jenny Johnson and Brett McIff
Each year, more than 2,300 children are injured on public school playgrounds in Utah. That is enough students to fill 100 average elementary school classrooms.

In response, the Violence and Injury Prevention Program (VIPP), Gold Medal Schools (GMS), Physical Activity, Nutrition & Obesity Program (PANO), Salt Lake Valley Health Department, and Safe Kids Utah held a playground safety inspection to highlight common hazards and ways to keep kids active and safe on playgrounds. Most of the common safety hazards are the result of everyday use and wear-and-tear over time. Common hazards include improper surfaces beneath playground equipment, loose nuts and bolts, cracked slides, and worn swings.
Meetings were held and emails exchanged over the span of several weeks to plan the event and get approval for a Governor's proclamation. A news release and press event was held on April 27 at Calvin Smith Elementary in Taylorsville. Speakers included Kevin Condra, VIPP, JoAnn Crawley, Principal at Calvin Smith Elementary, and Greg Langfeld, an Environmental Health Specialist at SLVHD. The event was covered by local media including KSL, KSL radio, ABC4, Fox 13, and the Salt Lake Tribune. Governor Gary R. Herbert also declared April 26-30, 2010 as Playground Safety Week in Utah. Originally contacted by the National Program for Playground Safety, the VIPP and Safe Kids Utah sought out the participation of GMS and PANO to make Playground Safety Week a success. The SLVHD was invited to participate because local health departments have authority to conduct school health and safety inspections, which include outdoor playground equipment and playfields. Calvin Smith Elementary was selected as the location site because they are a Gold Medal School, in addition to being a recipient of a Safe Kids grant to improve the health of students by making environmental changes that encourage kids to walk or bike to school safely. Integration focused on incorporating physical activity and safety messages to encourage safe play.

The day's events, although hampered by rain/snow and high wind forecasts, was a huge success thanks to all the partners involved. Work will continue in the future to ensure safety and physical activity messages are incorporated as much as possible.

Lessons Learned:

• Start the process to get a proclamation signed by the Governor early! At least 45 days in advance of the event date. Involve the UDOH Office of Public Information in the process. There was some misunderstanding on the time frame and process for this activity but luckily, with the support of Dr. Sundwall, the National Program for Playground Safety, and the Governor's Office staff, the proclamation was able to be signed for the week's events. Read more on how to get a declaration signed....
• Be flexible and have a back-up plan (or several of them)! Due to bad weather, the press conference had to be moved up one day. This caused problems with one of the invited speakers, Mayor Peter Corroon, who was unable to attend the event after it was rescheduled. Because the event had to be held outdoors and during the week of April 26-30, it was more difficult to figure out what to do at the last minute when heavy rain/snow was in the weather forecast. It would have been helpful to have already figured out plans "a," "b," and "c" ahead of time with the hope that all invited speakers could attend any of the dates and times scheduled.
  

More information on student injuries in Utah, playground safety checklists, and ways to fix hazards on playgrounds can be found at http://health.utah.gov/vipp/schoolInjuries/PlaygroundSafety.html.