From Linsul on Chalk Bucket:
This was sent out by Diane Callison of Texas USA Gymnastics. This only affects our state, please read it as it has potential to HUGELY impact our sport of choice. Cliffnotes: a senator is getting a bill voted on soon that would require facilities where kids train more than 10 hours a week to be child care licensed. All the ways that would impact gyms, coaches, athletes, and parents are listed below …
Texas Senate and House Bills that will affect the Sport Of Gymnastics
Some of you are aware that we have proposed bills in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives that will affect our future in the sport of gymnastics.
All of these bills are posted on txusag.com and on the Texas legislative websites.
Senate Bill 68 overview: If you have children who train 10 hours or more a week in your facility – you will be required to be child care licensed by the state of Texas. This licensing will require your facility to meet all the minimum standards set by child care licensing (most gyms will not be able to meet these requirements which will include bathroom sink/toilet ratios in compliance with child care standards, out door playground, Child Care certification of workers and director, sprinkler systems that not only meet building code but also meet child care standards and climbing structures with safety fall zones). Uneven bars would be considered a climbing structure and would not pass child care regulations. This bill passed the Senate Sub Committee unanimously yesterday. …
Obviously this legislation is idiotic.
It reminds me of the time the Fire Inspector told us to put a fence around the foam pit so kids would not “fall in”.
If you are from Texas, click through to see what you can do to protest this insanity:
Chalk Bucket – TEXAS Parents and Gymnasts PLEASE READ. Time to rabble so grab your pitchfork
11 comments ↓
I can see where they’re coming from and where you’re fire Marshall is coming from. I really do but I also think a little bit is about ignorance. However, and I don’t know Texas law, but I know that in Washington State, any activity that gets some kind of government funding must meet child safety laws, meaning that there is a correct child to caretaker ratio. It’s for safety reasons and I understand it. I’ve been in situations where the child to caretaker ration is just out of control and it’s not fun. So I understand the reasoning behind it.
It’s is kind of not related but along the same lines as there is a bill that people are trying to push through the US government that would require anybody with 2 or more dogs to become a licensed breeder (even if they had mutts) and or all, all your animals had to be tagged with a governmental approved microchip.
That’s just dumb. How this was not nipped in the butt by parents and coaches (and gym owners!) before there was ever a vote is beyond me.
This certainly cant be the first that everyone is hearing about this, and it seems that a lack of our (coaches) understanding of the legal system, and communication with state senators pointing out the “best interest” of the people is what caused this. It still needs to be signed into law (and pass through the house), so many people can get their voices heard and make sure it does not fully pass without serious overhaul.
Right now, educating those who are in power is absolutely necessary. I certainly hope that everyone who has a say and is effected by this speaks up. If Texas sets a standard like this, it’s really only a matter of time before other states begin to consider it.
Then again.. pointing out obesity as a reason against this bill hasn’t been a major motivator in Texas as late – you know, everything’s bigger in Texas: Even the people. Perhaps this will help make people in Texas understand why they have such a problem with overwight children, and make concerted efforts to get law makers with the right mind set into office.
Much like Linsul, this makes me rather upset too; and I don’t live in Texas. If I did, I would be writing my representative daily; and every other representative I could get a hold of.
Wow, I can’t believe this. I’n hundred and thousand of miles from Texas and i am raging!!! Where is the line drawn between a sports training venue and a child care venue? Uneven bars/climbing structure? A gym is not a playground and isn’t that something all coaches tell the kids? The first thing we were told when we did gymnastics in school was not to ‘play’ on the equipment, not to even get on it unsupervised because it is not a ‘playground’ for our own safety. I’m all for making sure kids are well looked after in terms of care and hygiene issues, but as a sportings facility, with the necessities and requirements of the sport taken into consideration. This bill is all about semantics. (and it’s so funny, because tonight i was watching an old Elise Ray college routine on bars and thinking what terrific bars workers the states have produced, lie Liukin and Kupets. Imagine if the other states followed? Imagine if those girls couldn’t have ‘climbed them? Stoopid, stoopid, stoopid)
Where is that picture from?
Some of this is pretty dumb and as long as people don’t sit on their butts – which I don’t see happening in sports-crazy Texas – it won’t go through in it’s current state.
I don’t have a problem with workers being licensed. Shit, USAG won’t require a license so I’m glad somebody is.
I don’t have a problem with facilities meeting child care bathroom/sprinkler standards.
The outdoor playground and the uneven bar climbing structure things are dumb. They’re not showing up for 10+ hours to go outside and play on the jungle gym. And an uneven bar safety fall zone is called a landing mat. Gymnastics LMs are way better than anything you will ever see under a playground climbing structure.
The picture is from “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central.
Is that the specific language used in the bill? “Children who train more than 10 hours a week?” If so, that’s unclear. Is it saying per child, or all children combined? As in, a gym without a team program may run gymnastics programs 5 hours an evening and throughout the day, all week, and 10 hours on Saturday, but no individual child trains 10+ hours a week, though the facility itself is “training children” more than 10 hours. If the language is specifying a particular child who trains more than 10 hours, then it looks like the statute would only affect gyms with “team” programs. This wouldn’t really differentiate between most of the gyms in my home town, as pretty much all of them had teams, but it may force some gyms (who have teams just to “have a team,” but don’t make it necessarily a focus of the facility) to make a decision about whether they want to continue their team program or just be a recreational gym. Part of me doesn’t think that effect would be such a bad thing…
However, even for those gyms it would affect, or all gyms if the language is intended to mean more than what it literally indicates to me (at the moment)…
Bathroom/Sprinkler standards might be difficult to implement. I’ve never owned a gym, and I don’t know what the standards are, but considering most gyms I’ve ever worked in are old converted warehouses on back streets named “Industrial Blvd,” retrofitting them to accommodate modern requirements might be a financial burden small gyms would find it difficult to meet.
Licensing may or may not be a hassle depending upon what’s involved. Does it require an actual education degree? That’d be a lot to ask for (I’m not certain preschools require that right now anyway…maybe they do, maybe they do in Texas, I don’t know). But if it’s just another online certification, then, ok, fine, it’s annoying, it’s silly, it’s just another hoop, but whatever.
As for matting, safety “fall zones” etc., I think the best authority for whether or not uneven bars are safe is probably the super-cautious insurance company who has decided to insure the equipment, and wouldn’t do so if it didn’t meet some supremely high standard. So, yes, representatives need to be educated in that regard. Gym equipment is probably doing a fairly good job of self-regulating on that front, without the need for state legislatures to jump in. I could be wrong, there, too. I don’t manufacture, sell, or insure equipment.
**Note: Just a civics reminder before we all get too flustered, “passing the Senate sub-committee” is not the same as “passing the Senate.” It’s like saying “All the people who worked on putting this bill together agree that the bill has been put together.” I’m sure everyone knows that, and I apologize if that sounded condescending, I just thought it should be mentioned.
This is incredibly dumb. What amazes me the most is that the last two AA Olympic Champions come from Texas. High level gymnasts train much more than 10 hours per week.
Uneven bars is the biggest nemesis right now for the USA in World competition. Can you imagine if the girls cannot work on the bars?
I am also wondering what will happen to Karolyi’s camp for the elites if this happens. Almost all attendees are children.
The reason the bathroom thing is stupid is because the main gyms aren’t run as child care facilities and they don’t need all the sink/bathroom space.
I would like to let all the Texas gyms know that they are welcome to come to Colorado and open their gyms!
One more thing about the licensing: A license doesn’t mean that the person is good at what they do. USAG has background checks, safety certifications and courses to be coaches and judges.
If you feel that a “license” makes the person better, ask yourself these questions: Have you ever had a bad haircut? Have you ever felt screwed by a doctor or lawyer? Do hunters always hit their targets? All these professions and more require licenses.
I say we have a tea party and take some liberal nanny state commie Demcrats and tie them in a bag and throw them in a river.
“One more thing about the licensing: A license doesn’t mean that the person is good at what they do. USAG has background checks, safety certifications and courses to be coaches and judges.
If you feel that a “license†makes the person better, ask yourself these questions: Have you ever had a bad haircut? Have you ever felt screwed by a doctor or lawyer? Do hunters always hit their targets? All these professions and more require licenses.”
Yeah, even people with licenses make mistakes or are not fit. The quality of the people with the license is also proportional to the rigor of the license requirements. Check out the number of bad gyms in the US. USAG background checks just started. Safety certification is an open book test affair that focuses on liability. And the coaching courses are not quality courses. You can’t learn to coach by reading a book and watching a video. I hadn’t heard of a judging course. The last I checked, it was get the books and study and take the test. That’s not a course.
Actually apolytongp, according to wfaa-tv, it is senator Jane Nelson who is pushing for this bill. She is a Republican, not a Democrat.
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