Dodgeball Lawsuit

Deadspin has posted about a boy who has filed a lawsuit over injuries suffered while on the bleachers of a dodgeball middle school.

Apparently, the boy was in a car accident and had dental work done. The ball broke his new bridgework.

First, I think Deadspin completely screws up by naming the boy. I cannot imagine what the point would be.

The one thing that has some appeal from a plaintiffs’ lawyers’ point of few: they were using soccer balls for the dodgeball game. That is just an awful idea.

But was it the value of this case? Does it make it worth it to put a 12-year-old boy on the line as the plaintiff what will be forever mocked – regardless of the facts – as the dodgeball lawsuit?

In 2006, the National Association of Sports and Physical Education began discouraging schools from playing dodgeball and some states have made dodgeball illegal because it gives bullies another vehicle to be bullies. The counter-argument is games like dodgeball give kids the opportunity to figure out whether they are bullies or if they are victims. One way or another, kids will figure this out, anyway. So they may as well learn in a controlled environment who they are and how to adapt and cope with that reality.