The creation of this petition is to shed light, inform, and discuss the tumultuous events that have plagued the profession when it pertains to Athletic Trainers providing sports medicine services in the secondary setting. In prior years, numerous appeals to the school district were made by: individual Athletic Trainers, representatives from outreach Sports Medicine institutions, and administrators from Hillsborough County high schools themselves to establish an Athletic Trainer at said schools. These pleas fell on deaf ears, were not considered, or were met with resistance time and time again. In the summer of 2019, incoming freshman Hezekiah Walters of Middleton High School passed away during a conditioning session with the football team. The details of his death are consistent with cardiac arrest secondary to exertional heat stroke - a condition Athletic Trainers are trained to recognize due to a position statement on exertional heat illness from our governing body the National Athletic Trainers Association. This past 2019-2020 school year, each of the 27 high schools in Hillsborough County established a full-time Athletic Trainer on site. While this may be seen as a victory and a step in the right direction, it was only possible due to the unfortunate, untimely, and quite frankly, preventable death of Hezekiah. Certainly, his passing should not have been the catalyst - no child ever should be.

The district maintained affiliation agreements with third-party companies such as: Select Physical Therapy, the University of South Florida SMART Institute, PT Solutions, & CORA Physical Therapy - to contract out Athletic Trainers to each high school. Fast-forward to Summer 2020, we learn about one of the many stipulations listed in the lawsuit settlement backed by the Walters family: “Athletic Trainers must be employed at every high school.” Aside from the ramifications we as a country faced, endured, and continually endure from a nearly four month long quarantine at the hands of a viral pandemic, more uncertainty has emerged again at the hands of these third-party companies. Unforeseen renegotiations of contracts and untimely reductions of force of these affiliation agreements have occurred, leaving nearly half of the school district without sports medicine coverage, yet again. On 6/11/2020, the one year anniversary of Hezekiah Walters' death, Hillsborough County announced their failure in meeting the stipulation of ensuring Athletic Trainers at every high school, as illustrated in the lawsuit. And incomprehensibly enough, the district has full intentions of continuing to phase in the return of sports without ensuring the proper sports medicine coverage. While we understand "a business is a business", and politics may or may not necessitate the motives of aforementioned businesses, this is unacceptable. We can no longer remain silent. We are now speaking out. 

The responsibility of student safety - student-athlete safety - does not fall on these third-party companies. The responsibility falls on the school district. Hillsborough County is intimately aware of the necessity of an Athletic Trainer's presence on school campuses, so why are they hell-bent on repeating the same mistake again this year, as they did last year? The only way to avoid the uncertainty of year-end renegotiations of the contractual presence of an Athletic Trainer is to employ them through the school district. Neighboring counties (with larger or smaller budgets) have long established this model, and it is abundantly clear that Hillsborough County needs to entertain & adapt to this model, too. 

"No school should run an athletics program, if an Athletic Trainer isn't present."

Every school deserves an Athletic Trainer. Every day. Always.