Student-Led Petition Pushes for Full-Time Athletic Trainers in Howard County Schools

A Howard County student-athlete is taking action to ensure Athletic Trainers are no longer sidelined during the school budget process.

Junie Ro, a senior at Marriotts Ridge High School, started a petition urging district leaders to fully fund Athletic Trainer positions included in the superintendent’s proposed budget.

The plan allocates $1.3 million for 13 full-time Athletic Trainers—enough to place one at each county high school. Currently, the district relies on a contracted model that provides only eight part-time Athletic Trainers who split time among schools.

Ro said she is encouraged to see Athletic Trainers included from the start this year but remains cautious after watching them be cut during last year’s final budget approval.

“I’m grateful they’re included now,” Ro said, “but last year showed us how easily that can change.”

The petition gained momentum quickly, surpassing 300 signatures within four days. Ro, a cross country and track athlete since her freshman year, said the issue became personal early in her high school career.

“I had to walk [injured teammates] to the athletic trainer room because as captain that was my duty,” Ro said. “Once I got there, there was no trainer there… I had to stay there and fill bags of ice for them and call their parents.”

She said the consequences of limited access to Athletic Trainers can be serious. Earlier this school year, a teammate continued training without an evaluation and was later diagnosed with a third-degree stress fracture.

“She was unable to see the Athletic Trainer to diagnose how serious the injury was,” Ro said. “It turned out that she had a third-degree stress fracture and cannot run for three months.”

Last year, HCPSS Superintendent Bill Barnes added Athletic Trainers to the budget only after community advocacy, but the positions were cut during final approval. Junie’s father, Brian Ro, said Athletic Trainers should be treated as essential, not optional.

“There should be a way to find funding for all these critical needs,” he said.

Junie Ro hopes advocacy prevents history from repeating itself.

“We don’t want to have the reason we fund these trainers be the actual death of a student,” she said.

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