[projekktor id=’13163′]

Concussions happen at arenas, sports fields, playgrounds and even in school hallways. They happen so often, Ontario’s Ministry of Education has ordered schools to help put an end to it.

“25% of the kids that start playing on these teams sustain concussions,” says Dr. Paul Echlin, concussion specialist.

And it’s not just team sports, concussions can happen from a simple fall, anywhere.

Concussion injury has become such a major concern for the Ministry of Education, so much so, that in 2015 all schools in the province will be required to teach grade nine students a unit on concussion awareness.

“They’re at a point where they can say, no, I’m not all right, or they can say to a friend hey, you’re not ok,” says Joanne Walsh of the Halton Board of Education.

But the Halton District School Board isn’t waiting for 2015.

For the last two years they’ve been working on a package of interactive teaching tools, tested in the classroom, for teachers in grades three, six, and nine.

“If you don’t know about concussions you won’t know how to treat it, and then, it can just get worse and worse,” says student Christian Heinz, who has taken the pilot course.

The program was developed with the help of concussion specialist Paul Echlin who says 90% of his practice is now kids, with sports related injuries.

“You can see the athletes that have sustained decades of these injuries, and how their lives have been shortened, and how their quality of life has been significantly decreased.”

The Halton board says, why wait for 2015? It’s willing to share it’s materials and curriculum, free of charge, with any board that wants them.

For more information visit Halton Student Concussion Education Project