That's what parents near Sacramento, Calif., want to know and, you know, I do, too.
Officials at East Valley Education Center in Oakdale, Calif. refused to appear on camera, but it sounds like they were using video games as an incentive or a reward to help kids with developmental difficulties socialize. That's well and good if it's, I don't know, LittleBigPlanet or Super Mario Galaxy. Modern Warfare?
Officials at East Valley Education Center in Oakdale, Calif. refused to appear on camera, but it sounds like they were using video games as an incentive or a reward to help kids with developmental difficulties socialize. Sounds great, except Modern Warfare, an M-rated game, was one of them.
A school administrator backed out of an on-camera interview (which the reporter chippily notes) but said that the school would get rid of the games. Meantime, the mom and dad involved here say their autistic son came home with manifested anger issues, acting out and directing some of his behavior at his sister.
Years of overreaction have conditioned gamers to mistrust hysterical parents and sweeps-hungry local TV outlets in the violent video games debate. But, at face value, this is colossally stupid. If the ESRB rating has any meaning, Modern Warfare is not appropriate in any school, regardless of students' needs. Someone's thinking lawsuit here, and someone else is probably looking at unemployment for Christmas.
Violent Video Games Allowed At Special Needs School [CBS Sacramento, thanks Mike B.]