Next season, MedStar will conduct research on injury types and mechanisms in youth lacrosse. The injury surveillance project is the first of its kind.
US Lacrosse offers an extensive education and training program for coaches and officials. Coaches learn how to encourage safe play and implement positive coaching. US Lacrosse works hand-in-hand with the Positive Coaching Alliance to stress the values of the game and sportsmanship. Officials, through the curriculum, learn how to maintain control of the game and enforce safe play.
Dr. Andrew Lincoln and Dr. Richard Hinton
Baltimore Editor's note: Lincoln is director of the Orthopedic and Sports Health Research Program at MedStar Research Institute. Hinton is director of Union Memorial Sports Medicine Fellowship and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.
High school bill seeks inclusion
Milton Kent's April 15 article ["Bill went too far: Competition between disabled, able-bodied bad possibility"] represents a fundamental misunderstanding about the purpose of the measure.
The essence of The Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act is inclusion. This bill is about ensuring that schools provide opportunities for students with disabilities to be physically active.
First, it requires that schools provide students with disabilities opportunities to participate in physical education, an essential component of school curriculum that should be available to all students, regardless of disability.
Second, as to interscholastic athletics, this bill is about inclusion and allowing all students the opportunity to compete for a spot on a school team. It does not mandate inclusion of students with disabilities when they are not qualified to compete at a varsity level and, in fact, provides for two situations when inclusion is not required: where it fundamentally alters the sport or where it poses a safety risk.
The bill does require inclusion absent these circumstances, meaning that, for example, an excellent swimmer, who happens to be an amputee, should be allowed to compete for a spot on the varsity swim team.
We have to remember that physical education and interscholastic athletics are educational programs to which all students must have access.
Terri Lakowski
Bethesda Editor's note: The writer is public policy director of the Women's Sports Foundation.
