Open thread to @JCPSKY @BradyJCPSBOE @GovAndyBeshear @KHSAA about decisions on HS sports generally and hs football specifically.

As of today 26+ states have made the decision to let families decide on whether playing HS sports is worth the risk vs usurping the judgement of individual families and dictating what is acceptable risk to a wide range of differing individual circumstances.

This is not a simple safety vs sports decision. It’s fundamentally health issues for both sides of the decision. Eliminating HS sports through arbitrary fiat does not eliminate the health risk to these young people.

There will be physical, emotional and mental repercussions for years to come. While these health issues may not be covered with the same media zest that a COVID case generates

the families that you have overruled in forcing your decision to take precedent, will have to manage the long term consequences of the all to real mental and emotional damage caused by removing individual choice and in many cases destroying childhood dreams and aspirations.

Families will be left to pick up the pieces of their now detached, unmotivated and possibly seriously depressed child.

For generations elected officials have understood that being in a free country means allowing individuals and families to make decisions for their own particular situations.

Each decision is independent of someone else’s but in the end people understand that when you make a decision you accept the consequences. Moreover, you don’t need advanced college degrees to make common sense decisions for your individual family circumstance.

Elected officials are there to serve their constituents not rule them with large one size fits all mandates. Serving your constituents in a free society means accepting the fact that individuals will decide what’s best for their own circumstances

While it may not be what you would choose, that’s irrelevant because having the power to actually make that personal choice is the essence of what makes us free a society. #letfamiliesdecide