No unattended children at evening sporting events
Students in elementary and middle school must be accompanied by an adult. Athletic events are a very important aspect of school life and provide a wholesome way to influence the positive growth and development of our students. They can foster team building, health and fitness, and community spirit. Whether our children participate as athletes or spectators, they can gain immeasurable value from these contests.
Our concern is, in the past few years, we have seen more middle and elementary school pupils left unsupervised by their parents at high school athletic games and, as a result, increased incidents of misconduct and other inappropriate behaviors by these children. This has particularly become a problem at evening games and events.
We seem to have more parents dropping their elementary and middle school children off at the high school and then picking them up after the game. This is not safe. It is particularly unsafe at evening games and events.
While we have numerous chaperones, the size of the campus and number of spectators diminish our ability to safely supervise unattended youngsters.
We are bringing this topic to your attention, and we are changing our athletic attendance practice because it would be irresponsible for us as school leaders to not do so. No one wants to wait until a child is seriously injured at one of our games to issue new safety rules.
Safety Rules
- 8th grade and younger pupils will not be allowed to attend home evening varsity contests without an adult attending the game with them. Children who arrive at the door or gate to a contest without an adult will be held there until an adult can arrive to either attend with them or take them back home.
- This policy will be in effect for all evening games.
- High school pupils may enter a game without an adult but must show their student identification card.