Should Football Be Allowed In School

A hot topic in this day and age has brought many parents to question whether or not they should let their children play tackle football. This is a sensitive subject to each family because they all share different opinions. Many families allow their children to begin playing football from a young age, whereas others feel that they should wait until their child becomes older. Being able to make this decision comes only from the parents, and the child should respect their decision no matter what. Experiencing this as a child was very tough for me because my parents did not allow me to play until my sixth grade year whereas all of my friends began playing in the fourth grade. Parents should let their children play football because it helps keep them in shape, do better …show more content…
Multiple studies have shown that between 1997 and 2007 the number of players that have had concussions doubled between eight and thirteen year olds and then tripled for older youth players according to the Southwest Athletic Trainer’s Association. Lori Cook from the University of Texas said that between 2001 and 2009 just football alone sent about 25,376 kids under the age of nineteen to the emergency room for traumatic brain injury each year. From just one concussion one might experience: memory problems, confusion, nausea and vomiting. After multiple concussions it becomes more serious and can be linked to brain damage. Even after one concussion the brain experiences damage. A study was conducted to people right after they had a concussion and people who were healthy. The concussion participants performed twenty-five percent worse on memory and cognition tests compared to healthy people. Even one year later the same people that had a concussion still showed signs of brain damage, and still showed the same score on the test of memory