Passing A Test To Watch Your Kids Play

Parents being removed and banned from their children’s sporting events is nothing new and happens on all levels from youth sports to even high school.

More often than not the action is taken against parents who are loud and verbally abusive to officials, opponents and even in some cases their own coaches and players. Most leagues and organizations have strict guidelines against such behavior and I’ve been at a number of high school games over the years in which parents were kicked out of a game and even removed by security.

My first thought is always about how embarrassing it must be for the child as their Dad or Mom makes a complete jackass out of themselves with all to see.

However you have to wonder about what a school in South West England is doing and whether that’s something we could even see here one day. The Isambard Community School is banning parents from watching their children play sports unless they pass a criminal records check which they have to pay for.

The reason for the strict measure is to keep potential pedophiles away from the school grounds and it was introduced at the start of the school term. Parents must each fill out a 4-page form and wait up to 8 weeks to be cleared by the Criminal Records Bureau and until that happens have to stay away from soccer and rugby fields. It’s not exactly been greeted with open arms from the staff at the school because they’re the opens who often have to tell parents they have to leave which has resulted in them receiving a fair amount of verbal abuse in return.

The school insists it’s not planning to back away as they take seriously the issue of safeguarding their students but other schools in the area show no indication of following along.

I can’t imagine anything like that being done in the U.S. but you do have to wonder about what lengths we might have to take to insure children, especially young ones are protected. The truth is many parents would be in favor of just about anything that allows for their children to be in a safe environment. However at the same time we don’t and can’t live in a bubble and almost assume that something bad is about to happen because that’s simply no way to live.