Dodge ball used to be the innocent sport that little kids indulged in on their free time. Now, it’s a whole different ball game.
The softball team of Jonathan Law High School recently planned a fundraiser for their team for the upcoming season. But they weren’t going to go door to door with a poster explaining why they needed money. They weren’t even going to have a softball game or sponsor an event. Instead, they decided on a dodge ball tournament, and it seemed like the perfect plan. Things were running smoothly until the powers that be at Parsons decided against the fundraiser.

Apparently, what was once a belief held by some is now written law: dodge ball, they said, is a form of bullying. The cancellation of the tournament, and the reasons behind it, brings up a ton of questions, among them: Who holds the right to decide whether or not dodgeball is bullying? Some people assume the school does, but the school doesn’t play the game, it is the students that do. The decision belongs to the students and students alone. They are, after all, volunteering to play. They aren’t being forced to.

Granted, some aspects of dodge ball do lead some to believe automatically that it is not appropriate in school. For example, depending on the rules, there could be a lot of pain involved. But since when is pain exclusive to bullying? It just goes without saying that this is an outrageous claim. Another argument which equates dodge ball with bullying is that it is a way for "bigger kids" to put the "little kids" down. The only problem with that argument in this case is that people who sign up for dodge ball know that they are going to get pelted with a ball. They don’t seem to mind, since that is the basis of the game.

Despite what some believe, there are actually several benefits from a game of dodge ball. It forces one to pay attention to the entire environment. The player must use all of his or her muscles to play. And there’s nothing like getting a big boost of confidence from eliminating another player, especially if that player is one of the so-called "big kids."

And, oh, by the way, it’s fun and, in this case, it’s for a good cause. In order to make everyone happy, the Jonathan Law softball team finally agreed on changing the game to volleyball, a sport where one is almost just as likely to get hit by a ball as in dodge ball. How is dodgeball, with people spiking balls at one another, not bullying, but dodge ball is? Furthermore, if volleyball is a sport and dodge ball is "bullying," why do dozens of towns in Connecticut have dodge ball leagues for both adults and teenagers?

At the end of the day, the success of the fundraiser is what really matters, not how the money is made. Nevertheless, this is a perfect time to assess the validity of these claims made by Parsons and other dissenters.

Let there be dodge ball.