Tulsa, Broken Arrow Schools Focusing On Keeping Students Safe During Intense Heat

With the new school year right around the corner, many students have already begun practicing for extracurricular activities such as football and marching band.

However, with the weather as hot as it is, school districts in the Tulsa area are putting in place specific guidelines when it comes to students practicing in the heat.

Tulsa Public Schools and Broken Arrow Public Schools both have said educating coaches and staff on heat-related illnesses and what to expect during intense heat are one of their top priorities to keeping students healthy.

Utilizing hydration stations, shaded areas, and specified practice times to avoid the hottest parts of the day, both districts are also using use wet bulb globes to determine when and how practices can be run.

Broken Arrow administrators said these wet bulb globes take into account temperature, humidity, and even wind to determine if and how practices should be held.

"It kind of allows us to understand weather, but specifically for this excessive heat," BAPS deputy athletic director Amanda Snider said. "We know when it goes into the black that means that we need to take a step back and look at what we are doing, and modify those practices outside."

The wet bulb globe has several different zones that its measurements can fall in. If the tool reads green, it means practice can run as normal, however, it's when it begins reading reading orange or even red, outdoor practices have to start adjusting. If the tool reads black, there will be no outdoor workouts, and practices will be delayed.

TPS has also said for the time being, they aren't allowing any outdoor activity for a large part of the day to keep students safe.

"Currently, we are under a no outdoor activity between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m.," TPS director of sports medicine Steve Friebus said. "So, if the teams want to practice, they have to do it either before that or after that, and a lot of that has to do because not only is it the temperature and humidity, it's also the solar radiation and wind."