Petition urges action on perilous soccer goals

An online petition calling for the creation of a law to ban or strictly regulate collapsible soccer goals had collected 3,487 signatures as of Monday morning.

An online petition calling for the creation of a law to ban or strictly regulate collapsible soccer goals had collected 3,487 signatures as of Monday morning.

The petition was started in memory of Jaedyn Amann, five, who was killed July 4 in Watson Lake after a collapsible soccer goal on the high school field buckled, striking her in the back of the head.

“Those who love her wish for Jaedyn’s passing to not be in vain; by abolishing the likelihood that another family will endure this pain, we can give meaning to this tragedy,” the petition site says.

A Facebook Page was also created in support of creating Jaedyn’s Law. It had 8,722 members as of earlier this week.

Jaedyn had been playing at the field with three other children between the ages of three and five when one of the children, who weighed roughly 30 lbs., leaned on the goal, which buckled.

Since her death, her parents, Paul Amann and Tara Hicks, discovered a tally of deaths and injuries by these collapsible goals, dating back to 1979. Jaedyn appeared as number 94 days after she was killed.

According to the list, which can be found at anchoredforsafety.org, Jaedyn’s death was the second of 2012 in North America.

A nine-year-old boy was killed last January when a collapsible net struck him in the back of the head.

“The numbers are too high,” Amann told the Star Monday.

“After Jaedyn died, we didn’t even know about the tally of how many are dead or injured. Once we found out about it it made things, we felt even worse, because it’s an ongoing problem that hasn’t been resolved or dealt with. It’s funny our government didn’t step in 20 years ago.”

The family lives in Ladysmith, B.C. for part of the year. An MLA from the B.C. interior has reached out to Amann and his wife and expressed interest in working with them to create Jaedyn’s Law.

Amann preferred not to provide his name to the Star without prior permission.

“I can’t believe we haven’t had one Yukon government official phone us to maybe work on a law in the Yukon,” he said.

Following Jaedyn’s death, all collapsible soccer goals were immediately removed from fields in the Yukon. Department of Education officials have previously said there were 70 in the territory.

Officials have also said they are co-operating fully with the Yukon coroner’s and RCMP investigations but will not release any information until those are complete.

Michele Royle, the department’s communication co-ordinator, said the department is continuing to look into the incident to see what it can do to ensure the safety of its equipment, whether school is in session or not.

She noted the department’s immediate response of removing all collapsible goals after Jaedyn’s death and said all of those goals will be inspected thoroughly to make sure they’re safe before being returned to the fields.

Amann said others have also come forward, interested in helping to draft a law and they are in the process of building an advocacy team.

So far, a woman from Ladysmith and a lawyer from Vancouver have offered their time and energy to work on the law.

Amann said the B.C. community has been incredibly supportive and is still fund-raising for the family.

A garage sale was held recently at a local church and a “beer, burger and salad” auction night took place Tuesday evening.

“It’s amazing what the people down here are doing for us,” said Amann. “It’s amazing support.”

The Jaedyn’s Law petition can be found at jaedynslaw.com.

By Ainslie Cruickshank
Star Reporter