EDITORIAL: Get kids moving — before school

You can’t fix a problem if you don’t see the cause. Case in point: rising juvenile obesity.

Parents, public health officials and educators alike are justifiably concerned with kids’ increasing waistlines and decreasing physical fitness. Last week, the Nevada Legislature heard testimony on a plan intended to help schools reverse those trends. Senate Bill 178 would mandate at least 30 minutes of daily physical education from kindergarten through 11th grade.

Ensuring that kids get daily physical activity is a no-brainer. But schools can’t expand physical education, without reducing instruction in other subjects. And lengthening the school day by even a half-hour just to accommodate the P.E. mandate would be incredibly expensive and inefficient.

Besides, it wouldn’t even address the cause of the problem it’s intended to address.

Sen. Scott Hammond, R-Las Vegas, was on the right track when he said giving students more recess time would help get them moving. But, again, adding recess time would require reducing instruction or extending the school day.

Unless, of course, schools expanded students’ playtime before the start of the school day.

The Clark County School District locks down campuses, fields and playgrounds, which typically don’t open to students until about 15 minutes before the first bell. Because of liability concerns, the school district won’t let kids play on school property unless they can be supervised by school personnel. The policy fits perfectly with today’s parenting culture and child welfare laws, which generally hold that any child playing, walking or biking outside the watchful eyes of adults is a child in imminent danger.

This, more than anything, is to blame for children’s decreasing physical activity. Parents are reluctant to give their kids the independence to enjoy unstructured play — and the resulting exercise they need — because they see all the reports of police and child protection workers threatening moms and dads who do so. A commentary on this alarming tendency appeared in this section Feb. 22.

And so, even as educators wring their hands over the poor health of kids who don’t play enough, it’s normal to see dozens of kids, eager to play, waiting outside locked playground entrances every day before school. If they’re lucky, they’ll get 15 to 20 minutes of activity.

It wasn’t always like this. It doesn’t need to be like this. These are decisions that should be reached at the school level, and they need not require more taxpayer support. If it’s a matter of providing a few teachers and administrators with some additional compensation for supervising the playground for 30 to 45 minutes each day, principals should have the flexibility to provide it. Perhaps that money could come from fundraising or grants. Or perhaps parent volunteers could handle morning playground oversight.

Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City, said after Tuesday’s hearing that he was open to ideas to amend SB178, which won’t pass in its current form. It shouldn’t require a state law to open playgrounds early. But it sure wouldn’t hurt, either.