Qld: Qld school invited to do backflip on cartwheel ban

AAP General News (Australia)
08-26-2008
Qld: Qld school invited to do backflip on cartwheel ban

By Steve Gray

BRISBANE, Aug 26 AAP - A north Queensland school principal is under pressure to perform
a policy backflip after he banned students from doing cartwheels and handstands in the
playground.

Belgian Gardens State School in Townsville has banned all gymnastics activities during
breaks, claiming it is protecting students from injury.

Education Minister Rod Welford today called for a review of the decision made by the principal.

Mother Kylie Buschgens told the Townsville Bulletin she was dumbfounded when her daughter
Cali, 10, was told she could no longer do cartwheels, even on the grass.

When her daughter first said she was in trouble for doing cartwheels, Ms Buschgens
presumed the moves were being done on concrete.

But she said the school had made an announcement at assembly that the activity was banned.

Cali said a friend had also been caught and punished for doing cartwheels.

Cali said she and her friends now "sit around and do nothing" during breaks because
they don't like other sports.

Education Queensland defended the ban on unsupervised gymnastic activities, and denied
the measure was motivated by a fear of litigation for any injuries.

A spokeswoman for Education Minister Rod Welford told AAP the principal was "reviewing
the decision and the minister has given his support for that".

"Obviously there's been quite a bit of community backlash against the decision so the
minister just asked for them to have another look and see if that's what they really want
to do," the spokeswoman said.

"It was just one principal's decision and there's no state-wide directive that cartwheels
are banned in all Queensland schools or anything like that."

AAP stg/pjo/tnf

KEYWORD: CARTWHEELS

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