Back-to-School Sports Dangers—A rash of student-athlete deaths turns up the heat on concerns about athletic training in high temperatures

September 25, 2024

It’s September, and kids are back in school across the country. In California, most students are already a few weeks into their academic year.

School sports are also in full swing. But as middle and high school football kicks off nationwide, tragedy hangs over the start of the season.

According to Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the National Federation of State High School Associations, by Aug. 30 this year, six young athletes had already died during school football-related activities in the space of just one month.

“Four of the deaths are believed to have been related to cardiac arrest and two possibly to player-to-player contact,” Neimhoff told NBC.

Two fatalities took place in Alabama within two weeks. On Aug. 23, 16-year-old quarterback Caden Tellier suffered a severe brain injury; his death was announced the following day. Just 10 days earlier, 14-year-old Semaj Wilkens “collapsed during an afternoon practice on a hot day, with a high temperature of 96 degrees,” according to NPR.

While each fatality and its contributing circumstances have to be assessed individually, Mike Oliver, executive director of the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment, told NBC that sweltering temperatures can be a factor in cardiac arrest.

“We see [fatalities] every year, and it angers me and frustrates me because deaths from heat in football are 100% preventable,” Oliver said.

Back-to-school and football season tend to conjure images of changing leaves, crisp fall days, and steaming cups of cider—in many parts of the country, that’s not even close to reality.

Of course, it’s not only football that poses dangers in such extreme heat.

In May 2023, 12-year-old Yahushua Robinson, a student at Canyon Lake Middle School in Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, died during Phys Ed class after being instructed by the teacher to run—outside on a blacktop on a day when the thermometer topped 107 degrees and excessive heat warnings had been issued. According to CNN, Robinson’s friends told the family that, before he collapsed, the child had repeatedly asked for a water break and had been denied.

The coroner’s report found that the boy “died of a heart defect, with heat and physical exertion as contributing factors.”

In an unfortunate irony, Robinson’s mother, a PE teacher at another school, had kept her students inside that day and hoped other teachers would make the same call.

Lawmakers push for more safety regulation

California legislators are trying to address pressing school sports safety issues with two new measures.

According to the LA Times, Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) has introduced Senate Bill 1248, or Yahushua’s Law. This broad measure aims to codify how California schools must address diverse forms of extreme weather circumstances related to any physical activity in school, including setting temperature thresholds, modifying activity, providing alternative activity, and implementing training to “recognize and respond to heat-related distress.”

If the bill becomes law, new guidelines must be implemented by Jan. 1, 2026. Robinson’s family is supporting the bill.

Assembly Bill 1653, passed in 2023 and in effect for the current academic year, requires the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the state’s governing body for high school athletics, to “develop guidelines, procedures, and safety standards for the prevention and management of exertional heat illness.” This includes identifying “the environmental conditions at which a school shall limit and prohibit practice and play.”

CIF now requires schools to use a WetBulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), a device that monitors temperature, humidity, wind, sun angle, and cloud cover to more accurately determine environmental levels of heat stress.

The new law requires that, under certain conditions, the school have a readily accessible method of providing whole-body cooling to aid a student in heat distress.

The measure also requires schools to “ensure that there is a written emergency action plan in place that describes the location of emergency medical equipment and procedures to be followed in the event of sudden cardiac arrest and other medical emergencies, including concussion and heat illness, related to the athletic program’s activities or events.”

These new guidelines divide California schools into different categories based on regional climate (some school leaders say the categories still need to be updated due to varying microclimates). There are also color-coded levels of heat requiring different accommodations: green, yellow, orange, and red. When conditions reach the black zone, games must be canceled.

Experts say that as climate change drives more extreme weather events, blistering heat waves will likely become more frequent and severe—making heat-related safety measures a moving target.

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Written on Behalf of Aitken*Aitken*Cohn