August 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 12

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
Play in the Time of COVID-19
By Dr. Taylor D. Bunn
E
City
arly in the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, I took my nieces
to play on a deserted playground. Schools were closed, the girls
were bored, and I hadn't seen them in almost two months of
lockdown. We were outside and at the time we didn't understand
the risk to children. A few days later, the city playground across the street
from my house was wrapped in yellow caution tape. Was it a good idea to
prevent kids from playing? I didn't know.
leaders were
facilities,
tasked with
making decisions about access to
public
including
playgrounds.
These leaders were balancing
constantly changing scientific
information against a wide range of
public opinions. This caused a great
deal of stress, confusion, fear and
mistrust (tinyurl.com/4v9kc2t4).
How do you make a decision with
potentially profound consequences
without precedent, solid data or significant
public support?
When wrestling
with an ethical
dilemma, it helps to have a
decision-making
tool. One such
tool is the Framework for Ethical
Decision Making from Santa Clara
University's Markkula Center for
Applied
Ethics. The framework
walks decision-makers through a
process of recognizing the ethical
issue, gathering the facts, evaluating
alternative decisions, making
and testing a decision, and finally
acting and reflecting on the outcome
(tinyurl.com/3cxw8r5r).
The playground problem presents
a tricky ethical dilemma: To close or
not to close? We know that:
* Play helps children develop physically,
socially, emotionally and cognitively
(tinyurl.com/2tkxcf2r).
* Vaccines, certain masks and
physical distancing are effective
contagion mitigation strategies,
Five Philosophical
Approaches
With these facts in mind, the
Markkula framework guides
decision-makers to consider the
dilemma through five philosophical
approaches: Utilitarian,
Rights, Justice, Common Good
and Virtue.
The Utilitarian Approach guides
decision-makers to do the most
good and the least harm. This is an
exercise that requires quantitative
data. Making decisions strictly by
the numbers can reduce emotional
interference. Hypothetically, leaders
could set quantitative limits to dictate
acceptable infection rates for
closing and reopening playgrounds.
The Rights
courages decision-makers
Approach ento
1
2
consider
all stakeholders' rights.
Playground stakeholders primarily
might be children and their caregivers,
but the highly contagious nature
of the disease makes everyone
a stakeholder at some level. Children
have a right to play (tinyurl.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, city
leaders were tasked with making decisions
about access to public facilities,
including playgrounds.
12 Parks & Recreation | A UGUS T 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
though these strategies are not
equally accessible to all individuals
(tinyurl.com/bdd32v7v).
* Children can become infected
with and spread COVID-19,
though
their
experiences
are
generally less severe than
higher-risk populations (tinyurl.
com/4v9kc2t4).

http://www.tinyurl.com/bdd32v7v http://www.tinyurl.com/4v9kc2t4 http://www.tinyurl.com/4v9kc2t4 http://www.tinyurl.com/4v9kc2t4 http://www.tinyurl.com/3cxw8r5r http://www.tinyurl.com/2tkxcf2r http://www.tinyurl.com/uxny86xm

August 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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