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)
No comments:
Post a Comment