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Search Menu Login Reset Password Home Weather Archive Sign Up for Alerts Full Site Close Menu Kim Archie is campaigning for stricter standards for cheerleading safety after her daughter Tiffani suffered injuries as a member of the North Medford High School squad. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Mom seeks safer cheers By Buffy Pollock February 17, 2006 - 2:00 AM Parents unite to help protect kids in an injury plagued activity A Medford mom whose daughter suffered injuries over the past three years as a cheerleader for North Medford High School is spearheading efforts nationwide to improve safety in the increasingly dangerous sport. Partnering with another Medford mom ' in Medford, Mass. ' Kim Archie says her goal is to spread the word about how many cheerleaders suffer from preventable injuries each year. According to a January issue of Pediatrics, more than 208,000 cheerleaders age 5 to 18 were sent to an emergency department between 1990 and 2002. Archie and Indiana father Pete Buczek ' whose daughter in 2003 shattered her skull after being thrown 20 feet in the air ' founded the Bring it On Safety Alliance last summer in order to encourage legislation for stricter cheerleading safety guidelines in various states. Ruth Burns of Medford, Mass., whose daughter Ashley died during a routine flying stunt in August, joined shortly after. — A cheerleader herself in high school, Archie says watching daughter Tiffani Bright discover a love for cheerleading was exciting ' until the injuries began. Even though I was a cheerleader, it's totally different now from when I did it, Archie says. At the onset of her sophomore year, Tiffani was attending a cheer tumbling class when her first serious injury occurred. She was in line, doing back handsprings on this long trampoline, Archie recalled. Because another cheerleader started onto the trampoline as Tiffani landed, she landed improperly and broke her wrist. Both bones in Tiffani's wrist were sticking through her skin. I scooped her up and rushed her to the hospital, Archie remembered. Doctors inserted a permanent metal plate and screws to hold the now 17-year-old's wrist in place. She would later win a courage award after nomination from fellow cheerleaders for coming back to the squad and going on to compete at the state level. But the injuries continued, including an untreated sprained ankle Tiffani hid from her mother. That ankle is now noticeably larger and weaker than the other. Repeated complaints to the school district were referred back to school coaches and administrators, Archie said. Doug Jantzi, director of secondary education, said district policy is to encourage parents to work problems out at the school level when possible. While he sympathized with Archie's complaints and her daughter's injuries, Jantzi said coaches are fully trained in current guidelines and safety for athletes and in what's allowable and what's not. We trust our coaches to do what's right, he said. The coaches have the best interest of the athlete at heart. And of course they still want to be competitive. They're going to throw as high as they can. Archie maintains that more should have been done in response to her complaints. Nothing ever changed for three years, Archie said. I decided I'd help out. I became president of the parent club and my job was I took kids to the ER. We had two kids have ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgeries where they repair everything around the knee. Another girl got her hand broken by a flier who fell wrong. Two kids busted their ankles and were on crutches at the same time. Everyone on the team wore some kind of ankle or knee guard. You go to the state competition and you can barely count all the kids wearing some kind of medical apparatus to keep them from re-injuring. — My own daughter has to wear an ankle and knee brace and she has a plate in her arm. Ashley Burns' death, Archie said, really hammered it home, that there are no rules, no safety guidelines, for cheerleading. Last fall, after injuring her knee but finishing the football season, Tiffani hung up her pompoms for good. North Medford High School cheerleader Heather Overvig was so disheartened by safety statistics uncovered by Archie that she took the issue on for her senior project. Overvig said she hopes cheerleading will be recognized as a sport. Football players wear pads and other gear, Overvig reasoned, but cheerleaders have no protection at all and perform dangerous stunts. Aside from encouraging legislation in various states for stricter cheerleading guidelines, Archie and other supporters are pushing for safety gear, especially for fliers. Regulation-wise, I just don't think cheerleading organizations are up to par and that's kind of scary, Heather said. Every other sport is regulated, but cheerleading is not. It's not very safe. While Jantzi reiterated that district coaches were meeting required guidelines, he supported Archie's efforts to see guidelines improved. When the issue of safety came up, I said, 'You know, I would be proud if Medford was known for making a difference in cheerleader safety,' Jantzi said. I related the cheerleading to X-games. Cheerleading as we know it today is a fairly new sport and we've got no track record to really track what's safe and what's not. When clipping became a foul in football, it was because too many people were having knees blown out. — I am totally behind Kimberly Archie in making the sport safer. Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] . 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