GOLDBERG: They don’t care about this. They just want to play, why not?
BEHAR: But they’re hitting.
GOLDBERG: No, you adults are saying they’re hitting. They’re playing! They’re having fun!
Barbara Walters also defended the school adding that they said the game had grown out of hand and was becoming dangerous for the children. The entire transcript is below.
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: There’s a school in Virginia where the principal has just recently banned tag. And, you know, this comes after I think dodge ball was banned, I think break dancing is now banned, tug of war is banned, and now tag is banned. I’m just a believer in the playground at school recess is place where kids can kind of work out their issues. I talked to a good friend-
JOY BEHAR: They should be allowed to attack each other.
HASSELBECK: I think that, no [laughter] hear me out. My friend, okay, one of my best best friends has worked in inner city schools from Massachusetts to New York. She believes firmly in the fact that this is a more controlled environment where these kids can actually problem solve themselves in an environment where consequence can happen and then, you know what, you can use it as-
BEHAR: Why don’t they talk it through?
HASSELBECK: You can use it as a teaching moment. They have a cement play- this isn’t a playground with like, you know, things and parks and swings and grass. This is a place where kids can imagine and play these games and learn about dealing with people.
BARBARA WALTERS: But on the other hand tell what his point of view was, was that in these days where kids are so often bullies, that it is not the kind of tag "I got you you’re it." It’s punching, it’s hitting, it’s throwing to the ground. It’s become a violent playground exercise.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: I’m sorry. It was always violent. I mean, I thought it was, you know, because I thought it was because you ran and you went over and you shoved people, you knocked, you fell on the floor, you know, that’s part of growing up.
BEHAR: I think you’re supposed to go "tag."
GOLDBERG: Not in my neighborhood.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: No, you’re supposed to push each other.
GOLDBERG: Like "boom, tag," exactly.
SHEPHERD: You have a generation of a lot of kids today that are really angry though. There’s a lot of anger that they have.
GOLDBERG: Because they have no outlet.
BEHAR: You’re suggesting that their outlet should be to hit another child?
HASSELBECK: I’m suggesting that these games, which are free play for kids in a cement field essentially.
BEHAR: Cement, you can break your head in cement.
HASSELBECK: Listen to me, listen to me. I played on cement when I was little, okay, I grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. Hear me out. I think that this is an environment where they can work out their issues there in a place where teachers, good teachers will use it as kind of a teaching moment. "Hey, you know I heard this was going on. Let’s talk about that. You know, if you’re working out your issues there, getting out your aggression there, you may be less likely to work them out somewhere else." You know, I fell like I learned a lot by getting beamed in the head.
WALTERS: So you would say to Gracie when she’s playing tag and some-
HASSELBECK: Good, I think she should play tag.
WALTERS: -one hits her and she falls in the cement and gets a concussion you say "good deal you worked it out."
HASSELBECK: They, they play it now.
BEHAR: I would be more apt to use a psycho-drama technique where you reverse roles with the other child.
GOLDBERG: They’re seven. They’re seven.
HASSELBECK: They want to be physical.
BEHAR: They can do it at three, believe me.
GOLDBERG: They don’t care about this. They just want to play, why not?
BEHAR: But they’re hitting.
GOLDBERG: No, you adults are saying they’re hitting. They’re playing! They’re having fun!
BEHAR: The only thing about it is every time I see a three year old on a tricycle or a five year old, how old are these kids, seven, eight? They’re on a tricycle. They’re wearing helmets. Everybody’s worried they’re going to get hurt everywhere and then they allow them to do this type of violent game.
HASSELBECK: If this is a violent game, I’m a better person because I got beamed in the head by a dodge ball in the third grade by-
BEHAR: Says you.
HASSELBECK: No, I think I learned a lot, [laughter] honestly. Do you think, do you think taking a couple of hits on the playground is-
GOLDBERG: Come on. Let me hit you on the upside of the head now.
HASSELBECK: I’m not saying I’m better than anybody else. I feel like I learned a lot by taking some hits on the playground. Let them work it out. Please!
SHEPHERD: Elisabeth, a lot of these schools don’t have supervision. They got to be supervised because in this school what they were saying that they’re playing a game with the tag called jailhouse or jail break where they all pile on top of the kid and they got to get up out of that. And some kids could really get hurt. I agree they do need an outlet.
HASSELBECK: But they can regulate it, just don’t cancel it.
