In 2006, dodgeball was banned in most public schools by an entity known as NASPE, which sets physical education policy nationwide. Duval County Public Schools specifically adopted NASPE’s standards in full. In 2009, two coaches at Mandarin “invented” a game called “wall-to-wall,” which combined elements of both dodgeball and kickball, where players had to sprint at walls while balls were being thrown at them. My client was hit in the legs by a special education student, tripped and went head first into a wall. She was diagnosed with a minor brain injury and still has some residual problems to this day- although minor.
Not only did Mandarin High School and DCPS officials deny this happened, but they spent money hiring experts saying it couldn’t have happened and that the game was unquestionably safe, but DCPS refused to accept even the slightest association with dodgeball, objecting everytime we made a comparison- even though the object of their game was to avoid balls being thrown at a competitor. They couldn’t even contemplate the similarities.
We had NASPE review the game and they wrote a scathing report about it. The case immediately settled.