Educational institutions

Educational institutions have the responsibility to nurture and develop the precious minds in their care. We’re here to ask them not to promote the destruction of those very same minds. It’s their duty to be aware of the dangers of repetitive head impacts and the very real dangers of CTE and brain matter changes just from contact sports. It’s their responsibility to curtail these activities because they’re really not supposed to do harm. Science is showing that children’s brains in particular are more fragile to repetitive hitting. In just one year, one year can change a child’s brain forever. Science is showing that girl’s brains are more fragile than boys. Science shows that repetitive hits in soccer, hockey, lacrosse and rugby - not just tackle football - they’re all detrimental to a developing brain. The problem is not concussions. You hear that a lot. Don’t get us wrong. Concussions are bad. A concussion is brain injury to the brain. But the bigger and unrecognized problem, the problem no one is recognizing, is that all the repetitive hits that you get playing in a game that you love and that everybody loves you playing, is promoting inflammation in the brain. Just like the slap in the hand and if you keep it up and you don’t stop it and sets the stage for brain disease and damage. So we ask you: do you know of students who committed suicide or died from a drug overdose? We suspect you do. And studies show that a person with head trauma is six times more likely to develop opioid dependence. Studies have shown that a child with brain trauma is two times more likely to experience depression and three times more likely attempt suicide or commit a crime. We ask you to think about the students you’ve already lost. What can we do to prevent more children from dying from a broken brain. The future of these kids is on your shoulders. You may not have known before, but now you know. Your school has a moral issue. If the role of our schools is to strengthen and build young brains, how could schools justify and invest significant amounts of time, resources, money and effort, and emotion, into activities that endanger those things? Currently the NFL and the NCAA are dealing with lawsuits about preventable brain damage . It’s a matter of time before the lawyers turn their sites on school districts and the insurance companies take flight. Plaintiffs have gotten proof that districts have been worned. In fact we’re preparing to send every school district a warning letter about the dangers of repetitive impacts and it allows students to be hit repeatedly. Would you allow students to be hit repeatedly by the class bully? All schools are being put on notice. There is no science out there saying that contact sports are safe for kids. Educated parents are already getting the message and making wise choices for their children. Youth tackle football has declined by 25% in US from 4,000,000 to 3,000,000 participants. It needs to go to zero. Every year more and more schools are eliminating tackle football and it’s time for leaders in education to set examples and do the right thing and show concern for its children despite public pressure. It’s your responsibility to warn parents about CTE. Do parents know the dangers their children face? We’re not talking about concussion protocols, which really have nothing to do with CTE. We’re talking about the chance that your athletes may receive brain damage from repetitive hitting and have a ruined future. While the benefits of fresh air and exercise and teamwork are well known by the football community the inherent danger of brain disease is not. It cost us our son’s brain and ultimately his life. Every parent and student should be warned about the dangers of CTE and repetitive head impacts.

So if I may be blunt for the school districts that we’re speaking to. If you continue contact sports as usual, you’re making a conscious decision to do physical harm to the brain of these kids. Let’s say you get the kids through school and on to adulthood, you may be out of the woods in your mind. But you’ve already done the damage. It doesn’t go away. Are you going to be there and offer financial assistance when your former athletes lose their jobs or make terrible life choices. Are you going to supply the medical assistance needed for drug rehab, or psychological support for schizophrenia, paranoia depression, anxiety, and the myriad of mental issues that come from an inflamed brain. CTE doesn’t develop right away. It can take years, even decades, for symptoms to emerge. When society finally realize that we’ve been ruining the brains of our children and they look to your institution as the culprit, will you be able to say that you protected children? Not if you let them play contact sports. You have an opportunity to step forward to protect children in your care. We do not want to put schools out of business. Some will say football programs attract students for the athletics. We would argue there’s a much greater advantage to being the place where children are safe and they have a greater chance for success in life. Kids face all kind of pressures to do dangerous things. Being the place where children are truly valued and their brains are valued is surely going to attract greater enrolment. Finally, it’s about doing the right thing with the treasures we’ve been given, because once brain damage is done, it can’t be undone. We don’t get a do over with children’s brains and their futures. Let’s give them a chance. Better yet, let’s promote brain health and support it. And you may lose a few students who look at sports as a way to succeed instead of scholastics; but you will gain a following who truly want their children to be safe and they want their children to grow and thrive in a safe environment. No game, no scholarship and no championship is worth the life of a child. We had the games. Patrick got the scholarship. But now all we have is a room of empty, dusty trophies and mountains of regrets. So change is on the horizon. We know that. We’re asking you to be leaders and protect the students NOW. Let’s first do no harm.