“Nerf Wars” is Edina High School’s spin on recreational assassin games enjoyed by high school students across the nation for decades. Similar to laser tag, students form teams and try to eliminate members of other teams, using Nerf guns as their weapons.
Yet due to the nature of the activity, as with any other sport, injuries are bound to occur. Over time, dangerous and sometimes almost fatal injuries and afflictions resulting from the game have led high schools including EHS to prohibit any form of participation in assassin games on school premises.
“We’ve always set really strict limits around the games not to be played on school grounds at school time. It should not in any way interfere with the process of school,” Assistant Principal Michael Pretasky said. “[Nerf Wars] has no connection to the school at all.”
The dangers and liabilities that could result from a Nerf Wars incident occurring on school grounds could be detrimental to the parties involved.
In north Texas, one teen is in critical condition after falling off a moving vehicle during an attempt to “tag” another student. Police departments across the country, from Massachusetts to Ohio, have sent out safety warnings to high schoolers. EHS hopes to avoid similar situations.
In some circumstances, the situation has escalated and has gotten city officials involved due to the inattentiveness that can result from the amount of engagement that this game tends to demand from players. EHS and Valley View Middle School Resource Officer Joe Delgehausen has witnessed incidents relating to assassin games in the metro. “[In] my experience here with Edina, we haven’t necessarily had a large scale incident here, but there have been some in the metro. Quite a few years ago now, there was a car accident where a couple of kids died… I think if it’s done responsibly, it can be fun, but the furthest that you can bring Nerf Wars away from cars, the better and safer everything will be,” he said.
“If people are crawling through woods in a park or something, sometimes people will call us, the police,” he said. “So what we ask is that, if you guys are doing the Nerf wars, to make sure that you aren’t coloring the Nerf guns, painting them black or whatnot, because it can be difficult at times to tell what somebody’s holding… If there has to be a split second decision made, the last thing we want to do is have an officer involved in a shooting.”
