FOXNews Investigative Report
Scroll down to the "Cheerleading Danger" from 11-09-08
Quick Definitions --Umbrella Policy: A general insurance policy that fills any
gaps in insurance liability coverage, usually $1 million.
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First Place Goes To...Cheer Safety!!!
By Krista Parks
4 year member of the UofMemphis Co-Ed Cheer Squad
As parents of cheerleaders, we should all root for safety to be number one. In all sports, we should be parents, protectors, and providers first and that includes being involved with your child’s sport. We may be there on competition day, or lend a sympathetic ear when practice didn’t go great, but we’ve got to become proactive parents in our cheerleader’s everyday lives. This includes having a heads up on safety and taking proper care of an injury.
The National Cheer Safety Foundation has some great guidelines available for parents and plays an extremely instrumental role in the success of your child’s cheerleading experience. The emergency plan is easy to implement and should be in the hands of every coach at the beginning of each season, rehearsed, registered, and reviewed on a regular basis.
If your cheerleader does get injured, take the appropriate measures to make sure they will come back 100%. Coaches should not be the one’s to diagnose an injury or pressure your child into “walking it off”. It is important to take time for the body to heal in order to continue without creating more injuries for your child or a teammate. Coming back from an acute injury too soon could cause your child to miss more cheerleading than the regular “6-8 weeks”. Finally, report the injury to the cheer injury report so that appropriate measures can be taken to make cheerleading safer for your cheerleaders and future cheerleaders. Remember, you can cheer from the sidelines, but not from the bench!
