Mark wrote:

On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 16:41:44 -0400, meirman
wrote:

In alt.home.repair on Sat, 19 Jul 2003 18:26:11 +0100 "gandalf"
posted:


"Terry" wrote in message
...
Do it your selfers/home repairers please help.
Six swings in local school yard suspended by chains. Good strong
commercially built equipment, built of galvanized tubing set into
the ground. Overall structure is fine.
Some teens deliberately swing seats up and over and around etc.
and tangle the chains them so swings become unusable.
Haven't we all done it, or tried, at some time? :-) Yeah, for
sure. You did so!
-----------

Parish is right. I was well-behaved too, and for that matter, I went
to public schools for 12 years in two cities and never even saw a
fight. Or vandalism. Or teasing. Admittedly this was the 50' and
60's but I don't think things have changed at either school. And we
had one girl who stuttered, and two who never knew the answer, and we
all sat their patiently until the teachers decided they had had enough
time to answer. Even though in the fifth grade I had heard the saying
"Children can be so cruel", I never saw it.

Presumably these teens do this outside of the school's normal hours. That being

But kids use playgrounds all weekend and after school too.

I think the school should hide snipers nearby and when the teenagers
have clearly started to do this, shoot 'em.

The rubber hose idea is good, assuming they don't slit the hose, and
most won't. But it should be done on both chains of a swing.
Normally the chain is straight during swinging (although you might
want to take some slow-motion video to confirm this, and save it for
the lawsuit), but even a small change that is applied to only one side
could set the swing to rolling sideways and knocking someone off.

Do one swing and see if the hose is stiff enough to keep.... it will
probably work the second time, but I'm not sure it will work the first
time and if it doesn't, it won't help

the case you could disable the swings and stop their 'fun' by threading a bar
through all the seats and then fixing that, at either end, to the galvanised
frame using motorbike locks.

OK I don't really expect you to shoot them. Maybe catch them.

Should work, should be cheap and reasonably easy to fit and remove, for those
with keys that is.

The integrity of the swing is not affected and neither is the playground surface
so you should avoid the very real problems regarding insurance and liability as
described by parish.

Meirman

Save the hose to use on the teenagers? ;-)

Mark S.


Thanks for the replies. As I feared there is a lot of
apprehension about liability. Enough to discourage anyone from
doing anything! Although at my age my overall reputation is
either already made or already ruined!
{Just a moment officer, please ......} So I don't care as much
about that as I once did! But would be bloody nuisance to have
sell the house to pay a lawyer since I was a) Going to live in it
for a while yet and b) Give it to my son (if it's any use to
him).

For info; the swings are in an area open 24 hours, there are no
teaching staff after around 4.00 PM even when school is in
session. At this time of year even the maintenance staff are
doing repairs at various other schools or are on vacation! There
is no security staffing at all! There is a sign that says "Use at
own risk".

Oh, by the way there was a very interesting and, precedent
setting AFIK, legal case in Labrador-Newfoundland, Canada
recently, where the judge ordered the parents of a teenager
responsible for deliberate damage to a school to pay $7000 for
repairs. Right on!

While glad to hear/see everyone were such 'goody, goody two
shoes' while at school maybe some 'hell raiser' could reply with
some swinging suggestions?

Thanks everyone, so far anyway. Terry.