PE injuries in middle school kids

Cattz, ADN · Sep 24, 2025

This is a great question. Is there a particular game that the injuries are happening in? I absolutely hate Dodge Ball and hope it's not that. That seems excessive on the number and severity of injuries. Sounds like admin might need to monitor the class closer for starters. Is the PE teacher a new teacher? Seasoned teacher? As far as the incident report goes- Do you fill it out completely or does the PE teacher have to take some ownership and fill most of it out?

Jollysox · Sep 24, 2025

That was interesting that you mentioned the teacher's level of experience. I thought maybe I was just being whiney, but maybe that's the issue. There is one teacher, who is young, that sends me the bulk of the injured kids. She will bring them to the clinic and completely misreport what actually happened. One day she brought me a kid who hit his head, and "is now just a little disoriented.” Well he wasn't disoriented at all. Today she walked a kid to the clinic who just needed an ice pack after being hit in the head with a football. That student actually collided with another student, and then hit his head falling on the ground. To answer your other question, it doesn't matter the sport. This is every damn day. But I do think the number of incident reports, and kids sent home due to injuries is a bit much. I don't think it should be happening 1-2 times a week.

Cattz, ADN · Sep 26, 2025

How is your rapport with the Admin? Seriously sounds like the Admin needs to monitor the class much more closely. Do you fill out the incident reports or is it the responsibility of the supervising teacher? If the teacher doesn't have to fill it out as completely as possible- maybe getting it changed so that she has to do that- just may make her take more ownership of all these situations. May help her realize that she needs to be more responsible and that allllllll this is happening under her watch. I would make sure that you quote what she says in your notes as to what happened during these accidents. And of course, what really happened.

I would not let this go- this sounds like a situation that needs to be working to a resolution very quickly. As much as anything else, to me, the teacher not knowing what really happens in these situations is a major concern. I get it, now and then- it's pretty hard to see every situation. BUT, repeatedly- no- not acceptable.

nytexan · Oct 1, 2025

Hi, Just wanted to add that in addition to the experience level of the teacher, look at the age group and maturity level of the kids. I can say from personal experience of my own kids right now, I saw them come home with more injuries during middle and elementary school then in high school. The kids are more grown up and mature in high school-not all, but most. In middle school they are still young and trying to figure out their bodies. Bodies are changing, girls with their periods and the kids becoming clumsy and lanky as they are growing while still having the mind of a 5th grader or 6th grader. One of my kids in middle school right now has come home with three trips to the nurse already this year. It's her own issues and nothing the teacher is doing-she's tripping over herself on the track and hitting her head, she's felt dizzy from the heat, felt like she couldn't breathe etc. while my highschooler who is extremely active in sports and outside for hours every day has not had one trip to the nurse, but in middle school this same kid collided with another and hit heads and other injuries. My elementary has already been to the nurse as well this year. Kids will also tell the teacher one story, the nurse another and the parents another so that can also be why stories are different. When I go to the elementary and middle schools it is so loud and boisterous, but at the high school it is so calm and quiet. Just wanted to throw another perspective in and it's probably a culmination of all the things mentioned that is making these trips to the nurse frequent.

Duranie · Oct 8, 2025

nytexan said:

Bodies are changing, girls with their periods and the kids becoming clumsy and lanky as they are growing while still having the mind of a 5th grader or 6th grader.

This is a very astute observation.
Elementary, and particularly MS kids can grow 1/4”-1/2" *in a single day*! Imagine waking up at the end of a week, to find:

that your pants are all "high waters", and when you try to move the way you always have, your legs suddenly feel like Bambi's did on ice. 😲
To top it off, your shins, and sometimes femurs ache so much at night that you wake up several times every night in pain.😫
Now, all of a sudden it really is your "first day (week/month) on those new legs" and you are too tired to see straight.🫩
And lucky you, today is kickball day or tennis day, or god knows what— all are equally horrifying in your mind. 🫣

Welcome to being 8-12 years old (boys even longer— all of my boys were still having growth spurts up to at least age 21-25, and my oldest (who admittedly, started puberty late @ nearly 15 years old) had his last growth spurt at age 28! <he grew 1.5", and is now a bit over 6'2"!! >

My hubby was the same way...once, early in our marriage, he accused me of shrinking his work pants when they were suddenly over 1.5" too short. His arms grew too—less, but nevertheless his dress shirt sleeves were all an inch or more too short. Hubby was 22 when that happened. [it was actually kinda funny when I showed him that other than the length, his pants were actually loose in the waist, as his body fat redistributed itself once he was taller.]

Anyway, I just wanted to give a little more context for the "kids becoming tall and lanky" description. Girls go through the same growth spurts, but hormones like estrogen & progesterone slow growth down relatively early, while testosterone tends to rev it up. There's other hormones at work too... but the end result is that most girls reach their final height by 14 years of age, typically. Boys however, may still be growing even as they enter college.