Why Middle School Students Should be Able to go to Football Games Without a Parent

By: Reese Dame

A recent email from the school states that students now must have an adult with them at the Sheldon high school football games. It says “To enhance safety and the overall experience for our younger community members, middle school and under students will now be required to be supervised by their parents or another responsible adult.” Is it ruining the overall experience for students by restricting their behaviors outside of school? 

Mandatory parents at the games are ruining the experience for middle school students. When interviewed, Lilia says, “With family it's awkward and feels like you're alone.”  

Most students attend to see other students in high school or to hang out with friends, not family. Many adults also have jobs they have to work at the time of the games, this makes it unfair to the parents because they would have to miss work to bring their kid to a game that should already be supervised by trusted adults, put there by the school. It's also a downside to the kid because of the reasons said earlier, like the restricted feeling put upon the kids with adults. They can feel immature while next year some of us will be in high school. 

 This rule was enforced to stop fights happening and I asked Lilia if she thinks this will stop the fights. Her response : “Not really, just have kids be more sneaky and less noticeable. Kids would go off school property and so they couldn't stop the fights.”

Lilia has a very good point, but others may disagree. Fights will still probably happen every so often but it may also reduce the frequency of how many there are. Kids might be too afraid to start anything because of the adults around, but will the adults even do anything if there was a fight? It really depends on who is fighting, but most parents will stay as bystanders in an event at the Sheldon games. Not many people have the ideas to get between a violent fight between people, for the fact that they can get hurt and it can make the situation worse. 

A better solution to stop the fights could consist of just talking to your kid and telling them it's not acceptable to start unnecessary fights. Setting clear rules for your own kid can go a long way, just saying how it should not be happening and to walk away if you see a fight. Most kids when they see a fight video and group around each other. Walking away leaves a sense of awkwardness because nine times out of ten, fights are started for attention. The school cna also ban certain people from the games, email parents and let them know they are not allowed back anymore. Banning a few students instead of punishing all is a lot more fair to the kids who go there for fun, not to start fights. 

If the banned students try to sneak back into the games, the school can email parents or even ask for student ID’s at the beginning of games. If they don't have them, you can have a parent come with them or show some sort of identification.

The rules for students bringing a parent to a game is not fair to us students. Students should have the option to go without their parents so they do not have these feelings they are having about the parent rule. 4J needs to take into consideration that just because of a few students messing around, they shouldn't punish everyone that wants to go to the games.