This fall two of my sons joined the ranks of sixty five 7th grade boys out for football at their junior high school. A few weeks into the season a friend asked me whether the boys owned their own football helmets or if they were using school-issued ones. As a mom who would rather my child walk than be double-buckled in carpool, I was appalled that it had never occurred to me that purchasing helmets for them might be a good idea. When I asked my children if other boys owned their own helmets, they said that several did. Are helmets sold at sporting goods stores better than standard issue at their junior high? I’m not really sure, but as parent I try to protect my kids as best as I can, so the boys are now playing in airbag-like shock absorbing helmets.
The National Athletic Trainers Association indicates that between 43,000 and 67,000 concussions are reported each year for high school football players. These numbers are suspected to be much higher due to the fact that many concussions go unreported. Contrary to formerly commonly held beliefs, concussions are not limited to high school boys’ football. Although the concussion rate is higher among high-school athletes, researchers indicate that the rate for younger athletes- both girls and boys- continues to rise significantly. In fact, recent studies have confirmed that female athletes have a higher rate of concussions than boys who play similar sports.
Football and ice hockey have traditionally been considered the two organized sports with the most concussion injuries. However, according to research by Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, girls’ basketball now follows football as the sport with the highest rate of brain injuries. Although in 2007 Texas was the first state to pass a bill which requires every UIL school employee involved in athletics to take an annual safety training program including head injury treatment information (“Will’s Bill”), Texas’ University Interscholastic League has been criticized by concussion experts for not having strict enough rules to protect student athletes. Currently, UIL rules permit athletes to return to play on the same day if consciousness is not lost and if concussion symptoms are resolved within 15 minutes. Although many school districts in the area have adopted additional measures to protect and support student athletes, consistency varies greatly throughout the state, most often as a result of funding issues.
Nationwide standards would force school districts to adopt minimum criteria for the identification and care of students suspected of suffering from concussions. This past Thursday the House Committee on Energy and Commerce prepared the final version of the Concussion Treatment and Care Tools Act (H.R. 1347) for a vote on the House floor. Just down the hall, the House Education and Labor Committee held its’ second hearing on the newer Protecting Student Athletes from Concussions Act (H.R. 6172), which would require public schools districts to have concussion management plans that educate stakeholders about appropriate recognition and response to concussions. In addition, the bill mandates the removal from play of any athlete suspected of concussion until cleared by an appropriate health-care professional, and requires special scholastic services for athletes recovering from head injuries.
Although at the elementary level our children are too young to be playing the public school sponsored sports which will be directly affected if the proposed bills are adopted, many of our children have, for many years already, been playing youth sports ran by various local agencies. Considering the ever increasing numbers of younger children in sports and the seemingly correlating increase in numbers of young athletes being treated in emergency rooms for concussions, it seems that the time has come for even parents of young children to arm themselves with information on the prevention, identification and treatment of concussions.
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