SOMS PARENTS LETTER ON CHS FOOTBALL RECRUITMENT



Dear Principal Irby, Superintendent Ramos, and Philip Stern, Esq.:

Earlier this week, we learned that the Columbia High School football team
and coaching staff visited SOMS to "recruit" our sons for the football
team.  They were the only sports team to do so during the school day, and
they did so without informing parents ahead of time. We also learned that
at the meeting they told our sons that football was "not dangerous because
they teach 'Heads Up' tackling."  Many of our sons came home ready to play,
and are now angry at parents who do not want them to.

As you know, these past years have revealed - in detail not previously
known - that playing football, even without head-to-head or
helmet-to-helmet contact carries with it a great risk of CTE, which can
lead to brain damage, mental illness, dementia, and suicide later in life.  The
unfortunate suicides of NFL legends Mike Webster, Dave Duerson, and Junior
Seau, among others, has raised the profile and specter of whether football
is safe and can be made safe.  The NFL itself is in the process of settling
a massive class action litigation related to head injuries.  The book *League
of Denial *and movie *Concussion *have helped to bring these concerns to
the greater public.

Significantly, these risks are not only borne by the relative small number
of players who play professionally in the NFL, but by the millions of
children who play Pop Warner, High School Football, and College Football.
Our children.  According to the Concussion Legacy Institute, 7 of 27
children's brains that have been tested, who only played football through
high school, have revealed CTE.  Among the deceased are teenagers,  Eric
Pelly, Joseph Chernach, Paul Bright, Mike Jenkins, and Nathan Stiles.

Seeking to stave off this controversy, the NFL instituted and funded its
'Heads Up' football program as a national initiative to help make the game
“better and safer.” While the program emphasizes proper equipment fitting,
concussion awareness and 'heads up' tackling, critics have noted that "the
program is woefully deficient in its understanding of two important
elements of youth football, including that "With football, chaos is at hand
in virtually every play. Tackling is a car wreck; it’s impossible to
choreograph heads-up collisions involving children — never mind college or
NFL players — running full speed at each other."  *See, e.g.*,
and

Football is not a contact sport. It is a collision sport.  CTE is caused by
subsconcussive hits, regardless of whether there is head-to-head contact.  And
there is no evidence whatsoever that 'Heads Up' tackling techniques reduce
the risk of CTE.

During the school day, our children are placed in your care.  We are
outraged by both the incomplete information that was presented at the
meeting and by the circumvention of parental guidance.

We have been in touch with Chris Nowinski, of the Concussion Legacy
Institute, as well as child-athlete advocate, Kimberly Archie regarding
this issue.  Both are as appalled as we are.

We acknowledge that (parent name removed)received an email in response to her Let's Talk inquiry today offering a telephone conversation with Coach Busichio to discuss this and to "address any concern."  Thank you for that response. We will speak to the coach.

However this goes beyond one parent speaking to a coach.  We need the
process to be corrected.  We are asking that the school remedy this
situation by - at the very least - making sure both parents and students
are honestly informed of the risks of football, including CTE, before the
end of this school year.  There is a very short window of opportunity to
make this right.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

(We have removed the names of those who signed to protect their identity)

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