Any student suspected of incurring a concussion during practice or play on public school and Parks & Recreation lands will be removed from practice or play and returned only after clearance by an appropriately licensed health care professional trained in the evaluation and management of concussions and head injury.

A concussion, a form of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), is defined as damage to the skull or the brain and its frameworks through an external force. Patients with TBI are known to have higher than normal rates of non-fatal deliberate self-harm and of suicide. Recent studies, including a 2020 study by the National Institutes of Health, have concluded that there is “robust evidence of the relationship between TBI and elevated risk of suicide.” Such studies have also consistently confirmed that a TBI can cause dysfunction of the frontal lobes and frontal- subcortical circuits, resulting in aggression, poor decision-making and impulsivity; impulsivity and aggression are further known to have a strong association with suicidal behavior. See, e.g., Lu YC, et al., Association between suicide risk and traumatic brain injury in adults: a population based cohort study. Postgrad Med J. 2020 Dec;96(1142):747-752. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj- 2019-136860. Epub 2020 Feb 3. PMID: 32015186; PMCID: PMC7788485.