Hi Bill,

First, I have taught fencing as an after-school program at Judson Middle
School and at West Salem High School -- both of which are in Salem,
Oregon (Salem-Keizer School District: http://www.salkeiz.k12.or.us ).
West Salem High also has a fencing club that is recognized as a student
organization. West fielded a fencing team (club-based, not varsity) at
four tournaments in 2004. Our problem has not been permission; it has
been finding space with a wood floor that we can use (but that's another
story).

Also, Hidden Valley High School in Grants Pass, Oregon has an active
fencing club that practices at school. Contact James Earley at
jim.earley_at_hv.threerivers.k12.or.us (replace the "_at_" with @).
Those are the only two public high school programs I am aware of in the
entire state of Oregon.

Second, foils, sporting epees, and sporting sabres are *not* weapons. A
foil/epee/sabre is far more akin to a long stick with a rubber button on
the end than it is to a sword. They are items of "sporting equipment",
just like a baseball bat, golf club, tennis racket, or javelin. And,
just as a golf club can be used as a weapon, a foil/epee/sabre is not
designed as a weapon. There is nothing sharp on any of the items of
sporting equipment used for fencing. You must communicate this
effectively to your school contacts.

You should also emphasize that fencing is statistically safer than *all
*other major high school varsity sports, including cheerleading (four
high school cheerleading fatalities in the 20-year period ending
2002-2003). For data see:
/Epidemiology of Sports Injuries, /Caine, Caine, and Linder (eds),
Chapter 12 "Fencing", by Zemper and Harmer
http://www.exra.org/FencingChptr.htm
and
/Journal of Athletic Training /(1999, 34(3):277-284, "Injury Patterns in
Selected High School Sports: A Review of the 1995-1997 Seasons", by
Powell and Barber-Foss.
http://www.nata.org/downloads/injury...johnpowell.pdf
and
21st Annual Report of the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury
Research
http://www.unc.edu/depts/nccsi/AllSport.htm

Fencing is a non-contact, aerobic activity that is truly a lifetime
sport. If your school administrators don't give ground on this, then you
might suggest that they ban baseball bats on campus under the same
rationale they are using. More people are killed and seriously hurt in
the United States /every year /by people using baseball bats as weapons
(not to mention accidentally) than have been killed or seriously injured
in the /entire world/ by fencing equipment in the last /68 years /(eight
fencing fatalities since 1937)/. /Baseball bats and fencing equipment
are both designed exclusively as sporting equipment. You tell me which
one is the "weapon" that should be prohibited in schools.

Good luck,

-Michael Heggen
Salem Classical Fencing
http://salem.classicalfencing.us
michael@classicalfencing.us

>Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 13:35:48 -0800
> From: "Bill Pirkle" <pirkle@zipcon.net>
>Subject: Where to fence
>
>I desparately need your help. My newly established fencing club is trying to fence in the school gymnasium but the school is telling us that these are weapons and are not allowed on school grounds. I need to counter that with a list of schools in the U.S. that do allow fencing in their facilities.
>
>Does anybody here fence in an elementary or high school gym? You may write me privately if you prefer at pirkle@zipcon.net
>
>Thank you,
>
>Bill Pirkle
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's
'Thanks & Giving.'
http://us.click.yahoo.com/6iY7fA/5Wn...ZIAA/VRUolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->

----------------------------------------------------------------------
The CFML is sponsored in part by Purpleheart Armoury, now carrying rapier blunts and leather gorgets. http://www.woodenswords.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/classicalfencing/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
classicalfencing-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/