I am writing this petition letter to get some parental/youth movement to share our voice to our elected officials on how we want our children to live their lives regarding school and school sports in Union County. As we know, our governor, Roy Cooper has set plans for the school boards to choose how our kids go to school and I’m sure most people have varying/personal opinions on what works best for their families. A main concern, is that the recently published plans for school do not align with the current science.  Based on the statistics below, our children should be in school every day.

Fall sports have already been delayed until September 1st at the earliest.  And based on the recent decision methodology of school openings, as a parent, I fear fall sports, or all sports will be cancelled for the whole year.  I want to raise our voices in favor of having fall sports with little to no restrictions this year and ask you to sign the petition.

Statistical speaking the numbers our elected officials are using speak louder than their decisions. This does not add up-as of July 21, 2020:

NC population has 10.49 million people with total of 102,861 cases (0.98% affected), of which 78,707 have been resolved. This leaves 24,154 active case in the state. There have been 1668 deaths in NC which equals 0.015% death rate. https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard
In Union County we have 2251 confirmed cases, 32 deaths, out of population 239,859, which equals out to 0.9% of our county’s population being infected, death rate 0.013%.
According to the American Council on Science and Health, the fatality rate for children is .0003%. https://www.acsh.org/news/2020/06/23/coronavirus-covid-deaths-us-age-race-14863

Based on these statistics, why would our elected officials hold our youth back from participating in school or school sports? There have been multiple Pandemics in the past, most recent H1N1 in 2009 affected 60.8 million in the USA and life went on normally. Sports are a vital component and motivator for kids and encourage improved academics.  School Sports teaches many skills to our youth: leadership, teamwork, mentorship, time management, improved academics, accountability, responsibility and physical health and wellness. Colleges will be scouting for talent. If sports are cancelled this will affect the dreams of many student athletes across our county and state. 2020-2022 juniors and seniors are at most risk of losing potential scholarships or opportunities. There are already many cases of student athletes moving to other states or opting for private schools where they can participate in sports, or even play only for AAU, Club/travel seasons and completely leave the school sports programs.  This could lead to a major impact of school sponsored athletics for the future.

We need to let our voices be heard before a final decision is made on fall school sports. As parents and youth, we want to be on the various school fields this fall. If you would like to see you child play in fall sports this year, please sign this petition. Your child may sign also. My goal is to raise our voices to all elected leaders and get our kids on the fields! Please sign by August 15, 2020.