Kids paying the price for behavior of adults at football games

Last fall when I was filling in for our sports editor, I had the privilege of being on the sidelines as Head Coach Brent Jackson led the Corbin Eighth Grade Football Team to its second consecutive state title.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

Also, on the sidelines, was Jackson’s wife, Jenni Lou Jackson, who had a very important job.

I’m not sure what her title was but she monitored the assistant coaches, who sometimes ventured out too far onto the playing field as they were yelling instructions to their players.

Jenni Lou would gently tug on their hoodies pulling them back onto the sidelines and off of the field before the play started.

There are a lot of teams these days that could really use a Jenni Lou Jackson not on the sidelines to keep coaches from literally going too far onto the field, but rather in the stands to ring in the spectators.

Last week, the Whitley County School District canceled the remainder of its elementary football season due to a number of reports about spectators at games making threats and creating a hostile atmosphere.

The conduct at some games had gotten bad enough that law enforcement was asked to be present for recent games.

“We always put the safety our students first, whether it’s in the classroom or the playing field. And, unfortunately, over the past couple of weeks several spectators’ behavior was not appropriate for our school setting. Those folks were asked not to return. Then last night at one of our elementary football games, we had some more spectator behavior that created an environment that we do not want our young kids to be around,” Superintendent John Siler said last Wednesday.

Personally, I would have preferred to see the school district continue playing the games without spectators in attendance, but I wholeheartedly support the decision of Siler and the school district to cancel the remainder of the season. Student safety should always come first.

In fairness, most of the people attending ballgames are there to cheer on their team when they score a touchdown or make a big play. Yeah, they may briefly boo the officials when they blow a call, but that is all part of the game.

When spectator behavior gets to the point where school officials feel it’s necessary to instruct people not to come back to games, to have LAW ENFORCEMENT present at ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES for goodness sake, and then to cancel the rest of the season, then we have far surpassed the point of RIDICULOUS.

Your words matter and words have consequences whether it is something you yell from the sidelines, say in a political speech or write on social media. This is something that far too many people seem to have lost sight of unfortunately.

In the case of irresponsible spectators yelling threats from the sidelines and creating a hostile atmosphere at ELEMENTARY SCHOOL FOOTBALL GAMES in Whitley County, the consequences are that all of the kids are being punished by being denied the right to play a GAME they enjoy playing.

In some cases your kids are being punished because of you.

Happy?

To the responsible parents and fans in attendance, we need you all to step up and be your team’s Jenni Lou Jackson in the stands. When one of your team’s supporters starts getting out of hand pull on their hoodie and say, “I know you’re just caught up in the moment, but you’re taking things too far. You need to back it down some. Think about where you are at. Remember there are kids watching you.”