Legal aspect
 

<b>It may or may not be in the rulebook, but if you allow the minor to go unsupervised to the locker room, you are opening yourself up to possible legal ramifications if little Johnny or Suzie manages to hurt themselves while on their own. Frank has a valid point. Parents nowadays are looking to sue anyone and everyone they can, and a minor being unsupervised could leave the official in a bad situation, even though the official did not direct the player to leave the bench area. </b>

There's nothing written or implied that says a referee is responsible for the supervision of players out in the halls, the lobby, the locker room, etc. Leave that stuff to the game administration. Somebody would have a heck of a time making a case stick that a referee was liable for a student leaving the gym.

Infractions are penalized in the order of occurance. In the style of this committees highly rigid rulings, when the defender leaves the court, the ball becomes dead and any subsequent contact is ignore unless intentional or flagrant.

Please check case 10.5. It outlines a referee's duties if he sends a player off the court."In such circumstances,the official should require the individual who has committed a flagrant foul to leave the vicinity of the court with an adult supervisor." You don't send players off the court unattended.

And I think it was a POE last year about players leaving the bench during play, like for a drink of water or going unattended into hallways.

Put the rulebook aside for a minute. The rule book does not cover all the legal entanglements you can get in to. Letting players run around unsupervised because the referee told them to leave the court, is opening all sorts of liability issues. I'm trying to prevent them. So, for the third time, if I'm in a one coach game, and a player gets blood on their uniform, I let the coach accompany the player to the locker room to change his/her shirt??? And hold up the game till they get back?

I'm of the opinion, that is the prudent thing to do.

Frank beat me to it, but I was thinking about the same reference in the book when I read the earlier post asking where is it in the rules that you can't send the kid off unsupervised.

The federation clearly implies that the kids are to have adult supervision at all times while participating in NFHS sports.

Not only does it have to do with injury to the kid, but I'm sure that it has to do with an upset youngster causing damage to the lockerroom or getting into a fight with some other students who happen to get back there.

The POE last year said "Heading into the hallway to get a drink or sitting up in the stands with friends of family, even for a short period of time, are not authorized reasons <b>unless they are medically related</b>". I'd say that changing a shirt under the "blood" rule is medically related. Iow, I'd leave that one alone if the player went out into the hall by him/herself just to change a shirt.

I'm not sure we are sending the kid anywhere when there's blood on the jersey other than to the bench. Our responsibility is to keep the kid from playing. It's then up to the coach to decide if they want that kid to continue to play. If they do, then it's the coach's responsibility (and game mgt.) to make sure that kid has a safe trip to the locker room. We are not sending them anywhere except to the bench, so we have no liability when the kid is then sent to the locker room to change.

Thank you M&M. That is a great point.

Hear hear.

My big thing (because of the amount of jewlery rule violations present in intramural sports) is that no one has to take off/remove any jewlery, but no one is allowed to play if they're wearing any.

The usual response: "So, ref, you're making me take this off/out?"
Me: "Nope - your choice what to do."

Est-ce que tu parles anglais?

:D