Quote:
Originally Posted by Snaqwells
Look, my point was I realize I don't belong in the OR because I wouldn't know my nut from my eyeball in there. I also realize that parental rights may or may not conflict with basketball rules, so often times a parent will have to choose between insisting on their rights and avoiding punishment in the gym.
There are a few things that I'm saying in this.
1. I have the right as a parent to be down there. Whether that's the right, proper, or "legal" (WRT basketball rules) thing to do is irrelevant.
2. If I decide to do it, don't get in my way.
3. As an official, I'm not going to call a T on a parent here. If they verbally accost me or my partners, I'll have GM remove them. If they tend to their child, I'll leave it up to GM to decide what to do.
4. Just because you can squeeze the situation into a rule for a T doesn't mean you should.
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Our stances on this are more similar than they are different.
We both realize that parents don't belong in certain places and that applies to hospitals as well as basketball courts.
Neither of us as an official is going to get into a parents way if they decide to charge out onto the court to reach an injured child.
Where we differ is in what we are going to do afterward.
I'm going to have GM remove the individual for sure, and most likely will assess a team technical foul. I'm not leaving the decision of what to do up to GM. It is the official's space which has been violated here.
If the spectator decides to accost any of the officials while being out on the court, I am certainly assessing a technical foul and might even forfeit the game, depending upon what the official was subjected to. For example, if physical contact occurred, then I would deem that the school administration has failed to provide a safe environment for the officials to conduct the athletic activity, and terminate the contest.
I feel that we as officials allow too much garbage from spectators and parents. I've grown sick of it and far less tolerant over the years. I'm tired of seeing the level of sportsmanship decline and believe that it is high time that we take action and do something about it. You will likely note this sentiment throughout many of my responses in various threads. Why people in our society believe that an athletic contest is an open invitation to be abusive to others is beyond my comprehension, but it is unquestionable that many think that way and act that way.
One wouldn't hear an adult yelling nasty things at a 16 year-old girl in the supermarket, but because she happens to be wearing a uniform with the name of the opposing school on the front of it she is somehow worse than a communist dictator and can be subjected to all sorts of indignities.
I guess that I have just become jaded in my old age, but I'm tired of it.