Guarding the Game: Student Safety in Sports
By: Phoenix Brown

With the Division One football and basketball seasons are here to ignite the college experience for students from across the country. The safety of college students is versatile. Some feel safe and others feel as if their safety is at risk. Vanessa Blake, Jayla Bryant, and Maeleigh Moore share their personal experiences within their universities. 

 

With the rise of mass shootings in public schools and the alert messages sent out to students regarding their safety, the rise of anxiety has skyrocketed among parents and college sports participants.

 

Electrifying, memorable, and energetic are just a few of the synonyms used to describe a college gameday. “The spirit is crazy. The air is different on a Virginia Tech gameday- in the best way,” states Maeleigh Moore, senior Marketing management student at Virginia Tech.

 

 The Polytechnic University is known for its historically famous football stadium with over 60,000 fans and arguably the best home field in the Atlantic Coast Conference. 

 

The concern for the safety of students has been a topic of discussion, especially for parents. From the pre-game activities such as tailgates and fan zones, the presence of public security and police officers is more than vital for the protection of students. 

 

Claflin University, located in Orangeburg, South Carolina has been cracking down on their measures about the overall safety of students as they are on the smaller scale of historically black universities with no outdoor sporting events. “They were always hiring more to cover all the grounds of our campus,” expressed Jayla Bryant, a graduate student secretary. 

 

Regarding universities in bigger cities such as Howard University, another historically black college, Vanessa Blake, a transfer student on the women’s basketball team specified how safe she truly feels. “The atmosphere is great and I don’t feel any less safe at a sporting event.”

 

The importance of safety for students at sporting events is robust. When students feel that they are safe they can fully engage and enjoy their college experience. The overall prioritizing of students can create a triumphant campus culture.

 

#safety #collegefootball #students #athletics #sports