Too Dangerous?
Should high school students play tackle football?
Football season is in full swing and every Friday night the high school stadiums are packed with fans as student athletes take to the field.
For most, it’s a time-honored tradition. For others not so much.
There has been criticism for quite some time now that the sport is too dangerous for high schoolers to play. Last Friday, a Pike County, Ga., high school student named Dylan Thomas, 17, was injured while playing for his school. He was taken to the hospital, where he died.
Closer to home, a Johnson County, Ark., 16-year-old, Perry Estep, had to be airlifted off the field Friday after being injured. Fortunately he is doing well.
Incidents like these have renewed calls for tackle football to be abolished at the high school level. The movement hasn’t taken hold on a major scale, but some schools in various parts of the country already done just that.
Football players are among the most likely to be injured among high school athletes. According to the Coach and Athletic Director website, an average of 118,886 players were injured each year between 2004 and 2014. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2017 that 24 high school players died from their injuries between 2005 and 2014. However, defenders say playing high school athletics, including football, is an important part of learning leadership and teamwork skills and may allow some students to go on to college who could not otherwise afford to do so. And they point to a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that showed no correlation between high school football and later impairment from injuries, including head trauma.
We want to know what you think. Is tackle football too dangerous for high school students? Or are the benefits worth the risks?
Send your response (50 words maximum) to opinion@texarkanagazette. com by Wednesday, Oct. 10. You can also mail your response to the Texarkana Gazette Friday Poll, at P.O. Box 621, Texarkana, TX 75504 or drop it off at our office, 101 E. Broad St., Texarkana, Ark. Be sure to include your name, address and phone number. We will print as many responses as we can in next Friday’s paper.
Last Week: Standing for the Pledge? Last week’s question was about a Texas lawsuit over a school expelling a student who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Should a school district require a student to stand for the pledge under threat of punishment? Or should the decision to stand be left to the individual student?
Yes, we absolutely should require students to show respect to our flag and our veterans by standing up with our hands over our hearts while reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. It is time to take a stand or else we will lose our nation to a bunch of unpatriotic scoundrels.—J. L.-T., Texarkana, Texas
Parents, if you want to teach your kids to protest our country, then teach them how to deal with the fallout—ridicule, bullying, ostracism, etc. Or you can teach them respect, honor, dignity, and showing your appreciation for living in a country that gives you great privileges. Chose to protest in a different way.—G.R., Texarkana, Texas
Not forced to stand, however they should be educated to why “they should stand.” Then, if they don’t want to, then they should be able to not stand for the pledge..—B.J., Texarkana, Texas
Yes! Enough is enough. When I went to school, we read the Bible every morning and we all survived.—JB, Texarkana AR
From www.facebook.com/texarkanagazette
■ Forcing students to stand has already been litigated and determined to be a violation of the first amendment. Unless it’s one of those private schools the party of Trump loves those students can be forced to show allegiance
■ If a person doesn’t like our Pledge of Allegiance, that s basically saying they don’t like our country. If they don’t like our country then they need to leave it. Period.
■ If they choose to stand fine….. if they don’t that’s fine also !!!!
■ Forced allegiance? If you’re not alleged to a country then you are not a citizen of it. You’re just a visitor passing through. If you are not for something you are against it. If you are a citizen of this country there is nothing in the pledge of allegiance that should keep you from pledging your allegiance to this country. If this pledge goes against your beliefs then you shouldn’t be here in the first place. You are either for this country or you are against it.
■ I think it is ironic that enormous amounts of people have been convinced to protest the pledge and the flag that represents our nation during a time when vast amounts of people forget the very words and think we are a democracy instead of a republic. When our country is incredibly divided between red and blue to the point that people physically fight over it and when we challenge our justice system on a regular basis as to whether they truly provide equal liberty and justice for all. Support the pledge, support the flag and support what we are suppose to be as a nation
■ I support the Constitution of the United States of America. This issue has already been decided by the Supreme Court.
■ Free speech is not a one-way ideology. Today, students are prohibited from prayer and Bible study during school hours. Students can’t wear any type of t-shirt they want or display any items they want on their vehicles parked on campus. Yet, free speech is demanded when it comes to refusing to state loyalty to ones country.