A pair of students in Naperville have written a bill that would set concussion protocol for high school athletes.
Rekha Iyer and Jash Desai are juniors at Neuqua Valley High School. They’re looking for legislators to sponsor their bill that would define how high schools confirm and reintegrate students who sustain brain injuries.
According to a report from the Chicago Tribune, Iyer and Desai wrote the bill in response to some of the challenges Iyer had to confront while dealing with a concussion.
Iyer claimed that Illinois' current laws that govern concussion protocol are too vague and oftentimes differ from one school district to the next. She said she thinks Illinois “can do better.”
Iyer and Desai’s bill proposes a five-phase system that starts with students who are initially diagnosed with a mild concussion. The systems allows for various provisions as the student heals and returns to school.
Perhaps the most radical aspect of the bill includes a final phase that applies to students who don't experience improvement over several months. The bill proposes those students repeat the school year, something Iyer ended up doing.
"I struggled; I felt like I was in a constant brain fog,” Iyer to the Tribune. “I could not retain anything. I lacked the ability to concentrate. I would be so overwhelmed so quickly."
