Washington eyes rules for disruptive spectators

WASHINGTON — Members of the Washington school board discussed a new extracurricular activities guide at their regular meeting last week. While the document for the 2023-24 school year contains countless new provisions about preseason meetings, transportation rules, schedules and admission prices, board members dwelled on a section about spectator behavior at extracurricular events.

The proposed new rules are based heavily on similar ones from the Clear Creek Amana School District, according to Washington Superintendent Willie Stone. If enacted, they would make official the following consequences for spectators who were asked to leave:

Stone said it was a reasonable boundary.

“My belief is … spectators are just there to watch the game,” he said. “They’re not there to be the official, even though we all get tied up and we get excited about it … (we’re) recommending the one warning because there are bad calls sometimes, people do say bad things, but if it happens once, there’s your warning, there’s a slight slap on the hand, but if it happens twice, it needs to be a bigger slap.”

Decision-makers, however, picked apart the section with a number of suggested revisions. Board Member Mike Liska said the policy needed clarity on what constituted the “next event.”

“What do you consider an event?” he asked. “Let’s say football. Does it have to be a football event, or could it be any event going on at that time? Because you could have three scheduled events in one day.”

Stone said he assumed the policy would apply on an event-by-event basis, but said he would consult with the activities director before putting that in writing. That would include away-games, assuming an administrator is present for enforcement.

Others asked about enforcement of the policy. Stone said the current norm was that referees would recognize people asked not to attend, while school administrators were tasked with approaching and asking the person in question to leave. If problems arise, he said the district reserved its right to call police and cite violators with trespassing.

None of that procedure was written into the draft policy discussed at last week’s meeting, however.

Others took issue with the list of behaviors that could lead to warnings and removal from activities. While the items includes typical offenses like disrespectful conduct, interference with events and physical confrontations, board members said they were unenthusiastic about rules against jumping on bleachers, use of signs and banners, and chants directed at opponents.

"I’ve done all three of those,“ one district official said of the bullet points containing those guidelines.

Board Member Eric Turner pitched a removal of gray-area items from the behavior list, in favor of a blanket directive for refs and administrators to use their discretion.

“I think we just say, ‘Inappropriate behavior,’ we leave it to our administrators to determine inappropriate behavior,” he said.

Board President Troy Suchan said he worried about uneven enforcement of the rule against signs and banners.

“Here’s what’s going to happen, somebody puts a sign up and they’re like, ‘Oh, that’s cute, that’s for her boyfriend,’ or whatever,” he said. “And then the guy next to her puts another sign up, and the person enforcing it says, ‘Oh, that one’s wrong.’ Then we have a problem.”

Board Member Mindi Rees said she disagreed with chants directed at opposing team members, but worried the rule would stifle back-and-forth cheers directed at opposing spectators, which are somewhat commonplace.

“Thinking of the football games … they chant back and forth at each other, I can think of them in my head,” she said.

Stone said that wasn’t the intent, but agreed that more clarity was needed in the policy.

“’We got spirit, how ‘bout you,’ That’s not directed specifically at an opponent,” he said. “And maybe we just need to be more clear. What I think is wrong, is, nobody should be talking directly to another player from another team.”

Stone said the school board could plan to vote on the rules at their regular meeting in July, after revisions were made.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com