Another day, another study showing that, all things considered, the kids are OK. Guess what? When kids play around with each other at school, they occasionally get hurt. Amazing, according to researcher Alison MacPherson:

“When a mom or a dad sends their child off to school in the morning, they kind of expect them to come home healthy and in one piece. It’s a bit of a surprise to have them end up in the emergency department when they’re going to school, which is what children do every day.”

I’m glad that “kind of” is there to modify the “expect”. As parents of human children, as opposed to cuddly sloths or something, parents are no doubt aware of the energy and enthusiasm with which children can approach “playing or informal sports”, and might even be able to reach back (in fond amazement) to their own childhood to recall those sadly-dissipated feelings of invincibility and recklessness. Why parents should be particularly surprised that injuries happen when large groups of children get together with lighter supervision than they may experience at home is unfathomable to me, but as accidents are by nature accidental there is no doubt some element of surprise no matter where or when it takes place.

(There’s more to parse in the paragraph, like the oddly non-parallel matching of “mom” and “dad” with “child”, not kid. But onward.)

More than 26% of the at-school injuries involved fractures, aka broken arms and wrists. Once a childhood rite of passage, now a statistic to be feared.

Perhaps more significant: of the kids admitted to emergency rooms in the study, just 18% were injured at school.