Nevada officials frown at N.C. bill giving concussion approval to parents

By Jesse Granger

Wednesday, March 1, 2017 | 2 a.m.

A bill up for consideration by the North Carolina Legislature would allow parents of a high school athlete who suffered a concussion to authorize their child to return to competition without being cleared by medical personnel.

The story gained national attention this week, even being reported on by ESPN, with many saying it’s a bad idea — a thought echoed by Bart Thompson, the executive director of the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association.

“It’s scary because in the heat of a contest parents are often the most difficult people to convince that a student needs to sit out,” Thompson said. “It’s not always the case, but it often is. Parents wanting their kids to be put back into the game and kids wanting to be in the game are the biggest issues we run into.”

The negative feedback was heard by lawmakers. On Tuesday, North Carolina state Rep. Greg Murphy, who helped write the bill, told USA Today they wouldn’t follow through on allowing parents to intercede.

The NIAA is regulated by the Nevada Legislature, meaning changes to policy would go through lawmakers. Thompson said he would hope any changes, especially one as drastic as what was proposed in North Carolina, would be discussed with his office ahead of time.

“The fact that parents would put pressure on legislatures within some of those circles is not really a surprise to me, but it’s disappointing,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the NIAA leaves no gray area when it comes to head injuries and has one of the strictest policies in the country.

The policy, which is also currently used in North Carolina, states, “Any athlete who exhibits signs, symptoms, or behaviors consistent with a concussion (such as loss of consciousness, headache, dizziness, confusion, or balance problems) shall be immediately removed from the contest and shall not return to play until cleared by an appropriate health care professional.”

If a player exhibits signs of a concussion, he or she is immediately pulled from the game. If the on-site physician or trainer determines the player has a concussion, the decision is final and the player must go through the concussion protocol before returning.

The first step of the protocol is being cleared by a medical professional. Next, the team trainer verifies the player shows no signs of the concussion for 24 hours after an impact test and one day of conditioning tests.

Then, the player goes through one day of practice without pads for football followed by a day of practice with pads. If the player completes all of these steps without showing signs of the concussion he is cleared to return.

“During that process, some parents that are anxious for them to return earlier will ‘physician shop’ to find someone that will clear their son or daughter,” Thompson said. “I’ve seen that quite a bit. When I worked in Utah I had physicians complaining about to me that they were losing patients to these doctors that are just clearing kids.”

Liberty football coach Rich Muraco, who is president of the Southern Nevada Football Coaches Association, is against parents having the ability to clear players.

“Sometimes in the heat of the moment of the game people lose perspective of the health of the kids,” Muraco said. “Hopefully that would never happen here.”