Video of teenage athletes hooked to IV stands in South Georgia is drawing sharp opinions from the public. Some call the depictions 'healthy,' others say it's 'inhumane'.
Photos and surveillance video provided to First Coast news shows the Thomasville High School football team undergoing a medical procedure--intravenous fluids injections.
Nearly a dozen football players are shown in a crowded school building hallway and on a bus getting the invasive treatment. A school official says the IV therapy helps prevent cramping in athletes during the game. Independent medical professionals tell First Coast News the locations shown in the photos are a far cry from a sterile medical facility and come with a high risk of infection.
Thomasville community advocate Nolah Shotwell says the photos leave the town with too many questions.
"When I first saw [the students], riding on a bus, hooked to the IVs, I just thought it looked inhumane. It just didn’t feel like something you’d see in America," Shotwell says.
A graduate of Thomasville High, she says she doesn’t have children at the school, but says she immediately reached out to the parents she knows with kids on the team.
"It has been a mixed reaction, you have some parents who said 'hey the pros are doing it, our guys are lucky to have this done,'" Shotwell says. "Then you have the others side where they did not know about it."
The Thomasville City Schools’ superintendent Laine Reichert told us in an email on November 5 the school gets a “parent permission form” from each player who receives an IV.
One mother of a football player who asked to remain anonymous to protect her child’s identity told First Coast News she didn't know about the IV therapy until she saw the news report. When she asked her son about it, she said he admitted to getting the IV therapy before games. The mother said she doesn't recall ever consenting to the procedure.
First Coast News requested a copy of the form parents would have signed for the IV therapy…first last week on Thursday then again on Tuesday after we heard from parents. The superintendent tells us their offices are closed for the holiday and she plans to get back to us next week.
Shotwell hopes the school takes a hard look at its athletic policy and takes what may be happening in the locker room into a public setting.
"Everyone in this community loves our bulldogs but we have an obligation to take a step back to look at what we’re doing and how we’re doing it," Shotwell said. "Sometimes it takes folks from the outside shedding a light on the things that have happened sparks a discussion that otherwise we wouldn’t have had."