A high school football game marred by fights and a robbery in the parking lot last weekend has led Prince George’s County Public Schools to institute new security protocols for football games.
Interim Superintendent Shawn Joseph said extra police officers and sheriff’s deputies will be on hand outside the events, where they tend to experience the most problems.
“We typically don’t have issues inside the game,” Joseph said. “Inside the game, you’ve got students that we know, and we have the administrators, and we have our security teams in there monitoring, and it’s rare that there’s an issue in the game. When there are issues, it’s typically outside, in the dark.”
Spectators will also be required to purchase tickets in advance, and anyone who hasn’t already bought a ticket won’t be allowed inside. Only students of the two schools competing will be allowed in the events, and they’ll need to have a student ID that proves they go there.
The same protocols will be applied to high school basketball games once the season starts.
It comes after two high profile incidents that occurred at nighttime events at Wise High School in recent months, both of which, according to Joseph, involved students from other schools causing trouble.
“That’s what makes it hard, when you don’t know the kids coming to your games,” Joseph said. “It wasn’t their kids or their community.”
Less than two weeks ago, D.C. Public Schools made a similar decision to enhance security at football games, citing “multiple instances of spectator conflict.”
Joseph said it’s really a national issue.
“We’ve got a parenting crisis where parents aren’t putting their expectations on their kids as properly as we would like or hope,” Joseph said. “So kids are coming in and they’re acting like no one has taught them issues of civility, and how to be a good citizen.”
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