LOS ANGELES A Californian elementary school has banned the popular children's game of "tag" from the playground partly because of fears that the child trying to catch the other players could feel victimized, the ****Los Angeles Times**** reported recently.

The principal of Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica banned the game from the playground late last month, setting off a raucous debate about political correctness gone wild in the sunny seaside town.

"It's laugh-out-loud funny," radio talk show host John Kobylt, said. "They're practically criminalizing an innocent child's game by applying terms like 'victim.' It's a game that everybody played as a kid. It's amazing. Where do they come up with this stuff?" The school said that the primary reason for the ban was safety because many kids are so engrossed in not getting caught that they fail to look where they are going, and often fall or collide with other children.

But in a letter to parents explaining the ban, the school also maintained that "in this game, there is a 'victim' or 'it,' which creates a self-esteem issue. The oldest or biggest child usually dominates." Education experts dismissed these arguments and said that the game can help combat the rising tide of childhood obesity, DPA reported. "It's not the game in and of itself, so much as how the game is played," said Deborah Stipek, dean of Stanford University's School of Education. "If it's played fairly where everyone gets to be "it," and when kids get tagged they aren't shoved into the wall, there's no deep psychological concerns lurking there."