Children are more likely to drown in backyard pools than in public ones, according to a new report from the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
Nearly 300 children younger than five drown in pools and spas each year. About 3,000 suffer injuries that require emergency room visits in spas or pools annually. Some 80 percent of those emergencies occur at residences.
An American child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident than by playing with a loaded gun, according to Steven D. Levitt, a university of Chicago economics professor, and author of “Freakonomics.”
Since summer is almost here, for tips on how to install a safe barrier around your pool, and how to supervise young children around water, click here.
Kirk Stroupe was angry when he got hit by an errant ball during a gym class. So the North Carolina gym teacher allegedly grabbed a bunch of balls and threw them at a 14-year-old girl.
“I think he missed her three or four times and finally hit her,” a fellow student, Cody Joy, told WSOC TV News. He said the girl ran for cover and kept telling the teacher to stop. A week after the incident, Stroupe, 36, resigned from Lincoln Charter School in Lincolnton, N.C. Police then arrested him on a charge of assault on a female. Stroupe, the school’s head soccer coach and assistant basketball coach, had taught there for six years. The girl’s father said that she suffered bruises from the incident.
Maurice Davenport, 14, was hit in the chest while he was playing in a game Wednesday evening. It wasn’t clear whether the ball was hit or thrown at him, authorites said.
He was taken to a hospital, where he pronounced dead. Maurice had been playing in the first game of his school’s new softball team in Chicago. He had been active in the football and basketball teams at Garrett Morgan Elementary School and was to graduate from 8th grade in June, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Way to set an example, mom and dad. One parent kept yelling at a referee after a call. Another parent even screamed at the ref’s daughter, “Your father should be fired!”
So now all the parents whose middle-school teens play on a Bethesda, Md., soccer team are barred from coming within 100 yards of the playing field. Individual parents being punished for unsportsmanlike behavior is increasingly common, but it’s unusual for a big group of parents to be red-carded.
Kathie Diapoullis, league president, that officials had to take a stronger stance. She said that the league had tried to fine parents previously, but parents would just shell out the cash and continue misbehaving.”For the parents to be shrieking on the sidelines and belittling people goes against everything we’re trying to do,” she told the Washington Post.
The ban lasts for two games, and hopefully the parents will come back to the sidelines a little humbled.
Nicole Denise Shields was apparently upset after the coach took her son out of a middle school basketball game on Monday night. She came down from the stands and whacked Coach Chris Kwolek on the back of the head with her hand, according to a spokesman for Wake County Schools in Raleigh, NC.
Shields was charged with assault on a government employee, the News & Observer reported. She turned herself in on Tuesday and paid $1,500 bail. She was ordered not to have contact with the coach again. An assistant principal and off-duty deputy sheriff witnessed the incident.
Hey, he just made a mistake, don’t sue him. Cheerleading is a “contact” sport so participants can’t take their teammates to court for every injury, the Wisconsin State Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
That means Brittany Noffke will have to find some other way to make herself feel better. In 2004, the cheerleader at Holmen High near La Cross, Wisc., was lifted up to stand on the shoulders of a fellow student when she fell backwards. She hit her head on the floor, and promptly blamed a 16-year-old teammate who had lifted and then failed to catch her.
Brittany and her family sued the boy and the school district. They said the coach should have had a second spotter there and provided safety mats.
According to Wisconsin judges, getting hurt during somersaults, flips and other stunts is to expected. “Cheerleading involves a significant amount of physical contact between cheerleaders that at times results in forceful interaction between participants,” according to the court decision, reported by CNN. The boy may have messed up, but did not act “recklessly.”
The teenager died from a heat stroke, and prosecutors say that the coach should have realized the dangers of directing practice on a 94-degree day last August.
David Jason Stinson, head coach at a Louisville, Ky., school, was charged with reckless homicide after a grand jury indicted him on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. Max Gilpin, 15, collapsed on the field and died three days later.
Stinson’s lawyer told the AP that he is innocent. It’s rare for a coach to be criminally charged in a heat death, although parents have sometimes pursued civil action. Max’s parents have filed a lawsuit against Stinson, five assistant coaches and Pleasure Ridge Park High School. Their lawyers issued a statement saying that the conduct of the coaches was “inexcusable, as was the lack of urgency and the delay in seeking medical treatment.”
Ed Nielsen says that his 16-year-old daughter is innocent.
“It’s something that happened in my house. It’s not an illegal activity,” Nielsen told KING-5 TV News on Friday. Nielsen sued the Northshore School District last month for kicking his daughter off her Seattle high school cheerleading squad after an X-rated cell phone photo of her was circulated among students this fall.
The photo was taken by the girl’s friend in June and somehow ended up forwarded to other cell phones, particularly among the players on Bothell High School’s football team. Nielsen’s daughter, who is not being publicly identified because she is a minor, was taken off the cheer squad for the rest of the school year.
Nielsen told the TV station that he didn’t understand why his daughter was singled out while other students escaped punishment. He said the photo, taken during the summer, was not on her cell phone and she had never forwarded it to others. “It’s outrageous that a government would come in and attempt to punish my daughter or myself for activities — legal activities — that we do in our home,” he said.
Another girl on the squad was involved in a separate “sexting” scandal and received a 30-day suspension from cheerleading. Her naked photo had been sent to her then-boyfriend’s phone in 2005, although it, too, was circulated this fall. The families of both girls have joined together in the lawsuit.
Mike Patterson, the school district attorney, said that although the photo action happened outside of school, it still violated the athletic code of conduct. “It was certainly unbecoming of somebody in the athletic program,” Patterson said.
Plastic toy Army figures and “Sassy Jammies” doll clothing sets have surface paint that contain excessive lead. They are being recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
About 5,400 of the toy figures dressed in Army fatigues were sold from June to September 2008 at various dollar-store retailers. Consumers can get a refund from the manufacturer, OKK Trading of Los Angeles. For more info, contact the company at (877) 655-8697 or through its Web site.
The doll clothing being recalled feature a two-piece pajamas set, eye mask and slippers and were made by Manhattan Group of Minneapolis. About 9,200 of them were sold by mail order, online and at specialty gift stores from Jan. to Oct 2008. They may be returned to the place of purchase for a full refund, and customers can contact the Manhattan Group at (800) 541-1345 or on its Web site.
About 1,000 hockey helmets distributed by Reebok-CCM Hockey U.S. Inc., of Vermont are being recalled because the chinstrap can unexpectedly come apart while in use. The affected products are RBK and CCM brand hockey helmets. Specific model numbers are available here.
The helmets were sold by sporting goods stores and Internet retailers from May to July 2008 and can be returned at the place of purchase. Contact Reebok-CCM at (800) 451-4600 or on its Web site.
No injuries from any of the three products have been reported to the safety commission.
Who's up for Olympics 2028?
Ever wonder if there’s any point to signing up Junior for toddler swim team and t-ball league?
A Colorado company will let you know if you’re wasting your kid’s time. For $149, Atlas Sports Genetics will analyze a sample from a swab swiped inside a child’s cheek and see whether the DNA contains ACTN3, a gene linked to speed and endurance.
“If you wait until high school or college to find out if you have a good athlete on your hands, by then it will be too late,” company president Kevin Reilly told the New York Times. “We need to identify these kids from age 1 and up.”
Some scientists, though, think parents can save their money. “Just line them up with their classmates for a race and see which ones are the fastest,” said Carl Foster, a co-author of the 2003 study that found a connection between the ACTN3 gene and elite athletes.
That research showed that half of the 107 sprint athletes examined had two copies of the R variant of the gene, which tells the body to produce a protein found in fast-twitch muscles. One Olympic long jumper from Spain had no copies of the R variant. So maybe his success was due to hard work?
