Whitman HS Student Athlete Says: MCPS: Stop building more turf fields like ours #artificialturf

“And the field takes another victim!” 

For my soccer teammates and me, this joke has become all too colloquial at every home game. But as we waited two months for Whitman’s new turf field to open last fall, did we expect to be cracking that joke multiple times per game? Definitely not.

 The turf field was supposed to be state-of-the-art, made with a different material than older turf fields with “cancerous” black pellets at schools like Walter Johnson and Wootton. Whitman isn’t the only school that has this type of turf field; B–CC, Wheaton, Richard Montgomery and Einstein all have relatively similar surfaces...

...MCPS officials recently tested Whitman’s turf field and found that its surface is outside the FIFA range for the degree of friction and “too smooth” for FIFA standards — leading to athletes slipping, sometimes resulting in injuries. FIFA is the international organization that makes rules for soccer, whether for the World Cup final or a youth soccer game. I understand the “smooth” standards may be different for soccer than for other sports that play on the turf field, but I also know that other athletes still slip and fall on the surface of the field too.

Also, when it’s hot and humid outside, dust from the sand in the turf rises in the air. There’s a potentially toxic chemical called silica in the infill of the field, which rises from the turf surface. Symptoms of silica poisoning include shortness of breath, coughing and rapid breathing...

https://theblackandwhite.net/66448/opinion/mcps-stop-building-more-turf-fields-like-ours/

injuries have continued. Not only are you putting their bodies in danger, you are also putting their futures at risk because their ability to perform is affected. It is unfair for the players that have worked so hard to have their opportunities for college scholarship potentially affected due to MCPS not choosing to do the right thing here.

From Molly Wichenbach public comment.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
BEFORE THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
July 11, 2019

RE: RICHARD MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL’S DEFECTIVE AND DANGEROUS ARTIFICIAL TURF
FROM: JOSEPH P KING, STUDENT

Good evening members of the Board of Education and Superintendent Smith. My name is JOEY King and I am a student from Julius West. My brother is on the Richard Montgomery Football Team and I am here to speak on his behalf since he is at health class this morning.

Since football practice is about to start again, we have all been talking about various home-made padding that we may be able to use to protect his skin, elbows, and legs when practice starts again and during the season.

We were talking about the reports that you also heard about last month at this meeting and also about testimony that you heard last year school year from Molly Winchenbach from the Soccer Team. It seems sad to know that there still hasn’t been commitment by the County to do anything about this during the summer before all the athletes are back on the field. “Looking into it,” was the answer that was given at the last meeting but that is not a good enough answer and probably wouldn’t be one that our teachers would accept if we tried that.

MCPS has already sent out samples of the turf and found clear reasons for the difference between our
field and the other field at Whitman that was replaced recently. This has been known since February.
Can you please tell me, today, a reason that this is being ignored?

• RM’s field is four times the FIFA standard!

Can you please tell me, as I am sure you have found out by now, what was the reason for this?
Who is responsible?
When is it going to be fixed?

MCPS has already verified what was obvious: there is something very wrong with the RM turf and the injuries are too many.
What are you going to do about it?

The band-aid that MCPS came up with last spring did not work. The injuries have continued.
Not only are you putting their bodies in danger, you are also putting their futures at risk because their
ability to perform is affected. It is unfair for the players that have worked so hard to have their
opportunities for college scholarship potentially affected due to MCPS not choosing to do the right thing here.

This cannot be the outcome with which you are satisfied.

I have heard that MCPS is in the investigating the replacement of all or most of the fill in RM’s turf all at once over the summer but, since I haven’t heard more, I am afraid that you have decided to not allocate funds or energy for us.

For the sake of my teammates, I am asking you to ensure this remediation gets done immediately.
Please. Do you agree that you owe it to the students whose health and safety you say are your top
priority.

You know, for fact, that this turf is 4x the standard for abrasiveness.
You know the reasons why it is so abrasive.
You know what you need to do to fix it.
Don’t waste anymore time while more students get hurt.

Please. Do it now.

Thank you.