As high school sports continue across North Carolina, a group of parents is petitioning to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools to let them to see their kids play.
So far this season, high school sports in the CHCCS school system have been played without spectators due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Parents are allowed to watch along via a livestream, but sometimes this is nothing more than a Facebook Live stream on a phone.
An online petition has been set up to allow parents to attend outdoor sporting events in 2021, saying that parents of junior and senior athletes have “precious little time left to see our children on the field of play.”
Jay Parker, the parent of two children at East Chapel Hill High School, said he started the petition to rally support for families to attend games.
“It’s very frustrating,” he described to Chapelboro. “Even parents in our Chapel Hill community, they’ve been allowed to attend games when their team plays at a private school, some of them have been to club sports games. As far as everyone can tell that knows, including experts in the health agencies, that is safe as long as you’re outdoors, you’re socially distanced, you’re screened before you come in and you wear a mask.”
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association currently allows 100 people at outdoor events, in accordance with guidelines set by Governor Roy Cooper. Individual school districts, however, have the authority to ban spectators at their county’s events.
In November, parents in Wake County successfully urged their school district to allow for limited spectators at sporting events. At UNC, the stands still remain closed to the general public but a limited number of friends and family of student-athletes are allowed to attend.
Other battles regarding attendance limits are currently being fought around North Carolina. One petition has garnered more than 35,000 signatures arguing for more attendance at high school football games. Leadership from the NCHSAA said it would “absolutely” want more fans in the stands at high school sporting events, but added only “when it is safe and conducive to do so.”
Parker said that part of his reasoning for creating the petition was so that families could have memories of their kids playing sports, especially if this is the end of their athletic careers.
“I felt like in the environment we’re in now that it would be, in a risk-reward scenario, it would be well worth it to get families in there so they could experience they same moments with their children that we have with ours.”
Molly Reed (4) fires a shot and scores a goal as East Chapel Hill takes on Carrboro in girl’s lacrosse on Thursday, February 4 at Carrboro High School. Parents are currently not allowed to attend games due to a ruling by the CHCCS Board of Education. (Dakota Moyer/Chapelboro.com)
In addition, Parker said he’s been in contact with other parents who are willing to take over responsibilities from school staff to help manage high school sports. This would include ticket-taking, temperature checks and screening the flow of the spectators.
“When I first reached out to the board in late January, the first response that I got back was that essentially staffing and funding were the most difficult issue that they were going to deal with.”
Parker estimated it would take just hours to rally enough support from Chapel Hill parents to volunteer at high school sports to help take the burden off school staff.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education is set to meet on Thursday and a discussion about outdoor attendance at athletic events is on the agenda. Within the presentation for proposed changes is allowing two immediate family members of each student to attend home games.
As the Chapel Hill community continues to work through the pandemic, Parker said it is important for high school sports to bring people together.
“I believe, and many of us believe, that school sports represent a coming together of our community. Win or lose, a chance to be together in some way in an environment that we haven’t been able to in a year and experience the ups and downs that sports brings you.”
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