Jacob Stateski, 6, was “crushed’’ when he learned a new rule at his school, Earl Beatty Public School, means he can’t take his soccer ball with him any more to play at recess. Nor can he bring his football. And tennis balls are also forbidden.

“He said, ‘Daddy, what am I going to do with all my friends?’ He wanted to change schools,” said his father, Chris Stateski.

So now he and his buddies “play with a little, tiny, Nerf ball he got from his 3-year-old brother,” says Stateski.

The happy days of kicking a ball around at recess ended Monday after students took home a letter advising that henceforth, no child could bring a soccer ball, football, volleyball or even tennis ball to the junior and senior school in the area of Coxwell and Danforth Aves.

The letter stated that there have been a “few serious incidents” in which staff and students have been hit, or come close to being struck, by flying balls. From now on, only Nerf balls or sponge balls can be brought to school.

School officials would not talk to the Star but school trustee Sheila Cary-Meagher said the most serious injury at the school to date involved a parent, who was hit in the head by a soccer ball and suffered a concussion.

“You can imagine it’s pretty hard to get a concussion,” said Cary-Meagher. “I think the principal is reacting in a rational way. You don’t want anyone to be injured.” A large part of the problem, she feels, is that “the school has one of the tiniest schoolyards in the entire board.”

Stateski says he can understand how there is concern about safety, but thinks the ball ban is “going a little too far.”

Rob Granatstein, the parent of Maxwell, 5, who’s in kindergarten at Earl Beatty, agrees.

“My kid plays hockey every day after kindergarten. He can’t go home till he’s done his game — he has a tennis ball and a hockey stick. This is what boys do . . . They’re kids, it’s a playground — let them play ball.”

Anna Caputo, Toronto District School Board communications officer, said the ban is temporary and the school will be monitoring the situation.

“It’s a small playground and 350 students are playing in that playground. There’s also a daycare (on site) so there are a lot of small children and parents going in to pick up the children.”

The ban on hard balls being brought to school is a “proactive measure. It’s also a preventative measure,” said Caputo, adding that the parent council at the school is in support.