Lawsuit could hurt school sports
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Updated: July 03, 2009 8:38 AM
School sports may take a hit after a $1.3 million award was made to a Chilliwack student injured in P.E. class.
Joe Ogmundson, Chilliwack secondary school basketball coach and former field hockey coach, fears that the willingness of teachers and coaches to volunteer their time may be impacted as a result of the ruling.
It's not just physical education that may be affected, he said, it's all sports.
"The risk could be considered so great that the willingness of coaches to step forward may not be there anymore," said Ogmundson.
The B.C. Supreme Court awarded 24-year-old Devon Hussack $1.37 million for a head injury he sustained in 1998 while participating in a field hockey game in his Grade 7 P.E. class at Vedder middle school.
Hussack was encouraged by his teacher to take part in the field hockey game even though he had been absent for most of the classes.
In the suit, Hussack alleged that his teacher was negligent in thoroughly teaching him how to play field hockey before allowing him to play, which he claimed resulted in him being hit in the face by a fellow student's stick.
Joe Mauro, Chilliwack secondary school P.E. teacher, was shocked by the verdict.
There's always a risk to sport, he said.
"On average I have five to eight kids missing a class – does this mean we have to stop our whole entire class to individually teach one student who's missed a class? No way.
"This is lose-lose for everybody," Mauro said.
Despite conducting safety checks and going over the rules of a sport, no teacher is ever guaranteed an accident-free class.
"You can tell kids a million and one times not to do something, and there will always be one or two who will still do it," said Mauro.
"The only way to avert accidents like this from happening is to quit coaching period.
"Unless the school district is willing to put an extra teacher [in P.E.] for the kids who aren't in class every day," this can't be avoided, said Mauro.
Sean Wicker, P.E. teacher at G.W. Graham middle-secondary school, speculated that a ruling like this could effectively remove sports that don't use protective gear, like field hockey, lacrosse and floor hockey, from the P.E. curriculum.
"It wouldn't have an impact on the curriculum ... but it would definitely have an impact on athletics," said Wicker. "If we're not able to do those kinds of sports in class, we will never see the [kids] who are good in those sports and be able to get them onto teams outside of school – this is where we find our athletes."
krobinson@theprogress.com
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