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Sports-Related Concussions In High Schools

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In the high school sports community, concussions remain a high threat to the athletes who do not receive sufficient awareness and the knowledge they need about concussions. Even though sports, such as football, are implementing penalties and different policies to try to reduce the amount of concussions that occur, high school student-athletes still suffer concussions at an alarming rate. Concussions remain a serious public health concern, as approximately 1.6 to 3.8 million sports-related concussions are estimated to occur each year. (Covassin, Elbin, Sarmiento 2012). However, North Carolina has taken the initiative to increase the student-athlete 's education of concussions within the high school community. Previous research regarding concussion …show more content…

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North Carolina has tried to combat this problem by implementing the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness Act. Tim Stevens, a writer for the McClatchy - Tribune Business News, writes that this act is named for “Matt Gfeller of Winston-Salem Reynolds High and Jaquan Waller of Greenville Rose High, who each died from brain injuries sustained while playing high school football.” (Stevens 2011). To prevent sports-related concussions from happening again, North Carolina passed this act to raise awareness deaths caused by concussions being treating improperly. Research by Tim Stevens, a writer for The News & Observer in Raleigh, NC, shows that the act takes “current North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) requirements for handling concussions, adds an educational component and creates a state statute” (Stevens 2014). By providing knowledge about concussions to both student-athletes and parents, this act hopes to reduce the amount of reported concussions that occur while playing sports. To do this, the Gfeller-Waller Act contains four separate components: “1) …show more content…

To try and combat this problem, Provvidenza et al, authors with the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found that “the 2008 Concussion in Sport Consensus Statement draws attention to KT 2 and highlights its importance in communicating information about enhancing awareness of and optimising education regarding concussion” (Provvidenza et al 2013). However, struggling to reduce this issue of the increasing rate of concussions, North Carolina decided to implement a new act in 2011 known as the Gfeller-Waller Concussion Awareness

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