"Most Dangerous 'Sport' of All May Be Cheerleading"

Lisa Ling and Arash Ghadishah support the title of their news article "Most Dangerous 'Sport' of All May Be Cheerleading" with interviews of cheerleaders, coaches and parents.

Here are all the word lists to support the reading of Grade 6 Unit 3's texts from SpringBoard's Common Core ELA series: Don't ban peanuts at school, Penny Problem, Should Dodge Ball Be Banned, Most Dangerous 'Sport', High School Football, Letter on Thomas Jefferson, E-Readers Catch Younger Eyes, The Pros and Cons of Social Networking, Social Networking's Good and Bad Impacts, Are social networking sites good, The First Americans
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. defibrillator
    electronic device to restore the normal rhythm of the heart
    Her parents claim that her school's defibrillator failed
  2. paralysis
    loss of the ability to move a body part
    the 45 minutes she went without oxygen left her with a brain injury that caused permanent paralysis
  3. uniform
    always the same
    That means there are no uniform safety measures and training methods.
  4. intense
    possessing a distinctive feature to a heightened degree
    "They said it was really intense."
  5. rehabilitate
    restore to a state of good condition or operation
    You fix it, you rehabilitate properly, and you move forward.
  6. catastrophic
    extremely harmful; bringing physical or financial ruin
    An injury is deemed catastrophic if it causes permanent spinal injury and paralysis.
  7. inherent
    in the nature of something though not readily apparent
    "We hope her death will shed light on the inherent risks of cheerleading and we hope that additional safeguards are taken."
  8. epidemic
    a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease
    It's a national epidemic
  9. elite
    selected as the best
    And we're seeing elite-level gymnasts on these cheerleading squads.
  10. stigma
    a symbol of disgrace or infamy
    And so I think there's that stigma, I think that goes along with it, for some reason.
  11. complicate
    make more complex, intricate, or richer
    Lord says that recognizing cheerleading as a sport would not increase safety and would only complicate managing an activity that is still not primarily competitive for most cheer squads.
  12. minimize
    make small or insignificant
    You can minimize the chance of having an injury, and what that comes down to is having a coach that's qualified
  13. certification
    an official document attesting some fact or credential
    Many cheer coaches only have to pass an open-book test to gain a safety certification.
  14. extend
    lengthen in time; cause to be or last longer
    Many cheerleaders practice all year, which means extended exposure to injury.
  15. recognize
    grant credentials to
    Still, critics believe that until cheerleading is recognized as a sport, safety will suffer.
Created on Thu Aug 14 17:01:47 EDT 2014 (updated Fri Aug 15 11:43:43 EDT 2014)

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