Something I Never Thought I Would Hear

Things are going quite well in my clinical practice and research is, of course, interesting. After a mind-melting meeting yesterday regarding the significance of some preliminary findings, research questions, and statistical analysis, I am happily on my way to doing a bit more work that will hopefully lead to some insightful payoff in the next year. However, I am rather low on clinically significant cases to report and many of the maintenance cases I have are handled by my clincal students. As such I would like to focus this writing one small yet profound interaction I recently had with my Athletic Director.

Background

I have likely mentioned in the past that I work in a tight knit, small, fairly rural, farming, ranching, and lumber community, population <900. My patient population consists of student-athletes between grades 6 and 12 with approximately 65 student-athletes between grades 9-12 in an almost entirely Caucasian community. In a fashion many may not be accustomed to school closes during the county fair and on the opening day of hunting season. I was raised in a similar community for the first 18 years of my life and speak this language fluently. However, in the ensuing 18 years I have lived everywhere from Vancouver B.C. to Tallahassee Florida and have become a rather left-leaning liberal. Suffice to say have little in common with the sensibilities of many in this community, particularly on the issue of gun control.

The Issue

In 1998 I was racing at a track and field meet 23 miles away from an active school shooting. Thurston was the 3rd mass school shooting in the history of the U.S. and one of the largest ever perpetrated by a student. This event also marked a sudden and continuing acceleration of mass shootings in American schools with, as of this post, the most recent mass school shooting occurring in Parkland Florida in mid-February 2018. Roughly 29 primary or secondary school mass shootings have occurred in the United States in the 20 years between Thurston and Parkland. Though I am happy to, at any time, I will initially avoid wading into the myriad social, cultural, financial, and political issues that surround such events and our societal responses to them. However, we all might agree that this issue has been at the forefront of our national dialogue as of late. It has been particularly odd in primary and secondary school settings with school boards, districts, state associations, local, state, and federal governments attempting to respond in some way that will not violate their own, or their constituencies, particular social, cultural, financial, or political interests.

The Conversation

A few days ago a conversation ensued with my A.D. as I arrived at my office during the school's lunch hour. The topics of conversation included funding, the scarcity of AT services in secondary schools, particularly those rural small schools like ours, and the fine job our local region has done advancing AT services. Quite suddenly, as the conversation turned to finances, my A.D., who happens to be 6'8'', became very animated. As he waved his hands toward the gymnasium door, school commons, and front office, he commented that recent discussion among administrators, school boards, and districts had centered around the idea of finding funding to support the hiring of school resources officers in schools giving off the impression that this would not be difficult to finance. His next words caught me utterly off guard. "If we really want to keep our kids safe we would be far better off hiring athletic trainers like you." I voiced my agreement and slowly walked into my office quite surprised.