Interscholastic sports and extracurricular activities such as volleyball, soccer, football, marching band, theater, and others are vital to the development of our children. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes this fact in a recent report titled “COVID-19 Interim Guidance: Return to Sports.” The report states: “Re-engaging in a sports activity with friends has both physical and psychological health benefits for children and adolescents. Participating in sports allows youth to improve their cardiovascular health, strength, body composition, and overall fitness.  Mentally, youth may experience benefits from the increased socialization with friends and coaches as well as from the return to a more structured routine.”

While the AAP report recognizes risks, they also make recommendations for risk mitigation and state that the decision to participate should rest on parents and guardians in consultation with their child.

In middle Tennessee and across the state, most public and private schools and have also adopted this position, finding ways for these programs to safely continue despite various virtual and in-person school environments. By not allowing this in Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), students and athletes are being placed at a significant disadvantage.

Virtual settings severely limit the ability to develop the skills and provide the opportunities that these activities bring for our students. Further, it is incredibly difficult for coaches to develop the important and often life-changing relationships that they have with their athletes and students in such a restricted environment. 

To this point, MNPS’s answer to these challenges has been to delay and defer decisions, which ultimately means that opportunities are lost and undue harm caused to students. By the nature of competitive programs if a child is not able to participate while others can that child is disadvantaged versus their competing peers.

We ask that MNPS immediately work to implement athletic and extracurricular programs, balancing the obvious safety concerns with the vital need for these important opportunities for our children.