Earrings & Liability
 

For the lawyers and wanna be lawyers on this forum: Can you point me to a specific legal case where an official has been held liable or sued for negligence because he allowed a girl to play while wearing earrings and someone was injured and blamed the official?

I have been told, clearly and unequivacoally, not to allow girls (and boys) to play while wearing earrings, even if they put tape over the earrings. It has always been an easy call for me -- until this weekend.

Girls varsity level ...end of summer tournament hosted by a local college. The tournament director is the college basketball coach. I am U1 (2-man crew) and before the opening tap, I see one player with tape on one ear lobe. She tells me it is covering an earring. I then see a small stud earring in the other ear that is not taped (this one is not on the ear lobe.) I tell her that she cannot play with earrings -- taped or not. I also told her that as a varsity player, she should know that she cannot play with earrings. The head coach is a dad...since Massachusetts does not allow varsity coaches to coach in the off-season. I tell him the situation and he has no problem with the ruling. The girl declines to remove the earrings (I did not tell her to do that...I only told her that she could not play with them.)

We get a substitute for the player and a couple of minutes later the tournament director approaches me. She said that this is an "informal summer tournament" and I should not be so rigid about the rule. I tell her...in clear, unambiguous words...that this rule is a safety and liability issue. She said that she will allow the player to participate if the earrings are taped and she will accept liability. I tell her that I want a written waiver and from her and the girl's parent and she agrees.

The player later enters the game, with both earrings taped. The game proceeds without incident and I have not heard from any lawyers yet. That night I get a call from the tournament assignor, who officiated several games. He said he had an "earring incident" in one of his late games (girl playing with tape over earrings; not discovered until very late in game; he tells girl she cannot play with earring; girl, coach and parents say she has played all day like that and no other official said anything.)

Now...when I told the girl in my game that she could not participate, my partner said, out loud, that it was fine as long as they were taped. I pulled him aside and told him "absolutely not. We are not going to waive this rule." He had the same attitude as the tournament director: "It is only summer ball. It is no big deal. Let's get the game going." To be fair, after I spoke with him later and after he thought about it, he changed his mind. He said he is an "old timer" who doesn't worry about these things, but upon reflection, he agreed that I was correct in insisting that she not play with the earrings.

When I described this to another official today, he said, "Tape them. Let's play. It's only summer."

So...back to my original query. If it is a summer tournament...not played under any the sanction of the MIAA or any other formal organization (but using NFHS rules), can the tournament director decree "taped earrings are OK"? Should I insist on a written waiver in advance? Am I being ridiculously overcautious? And lastly...what is with these girl athletes? Why don't they just leave the earrings at home or in the car before a game...any game.

Good grief. I hate this about girls ball, but I can't imagine letting this go at the high school varsity level; even in summer ball. They should know better. Liability or not, it's a safety issue and she's not just endangering herself.

I'm pretty certain it's not going to close up in an hour.

TDs can pretty much dictate whatever they want; they don't have to have me officiate their games, though. Regardless of liability, I'm not interested in applying first aid when someone gets cut or an ear gets ripped. Tape falls off when players sweat.

I caved on this once in a 4th grade AAU girls game. After reflection afterwards, I won't do it again.

I do not know of a single case that has been filed about this issue. I am sure someone knows of a specific case. Considering the litigious nature of this country and that people and companies are sued all the time over a perceived violation of a policy or something that is not even against policy, I do not want to take the chances. But if a tournament says it is OK, I would have no problem throwing them under the bus if there is a legal action taken.

Peace

I will try to make this as simple as possible.

As officials, our job is to enforce the rules. There are no jewelry rules at every level. When we as officials, choose to not enforce the rules (i.e. allowing players to wear jewelry), we totally open ourselves up for a negligence suit. I cannot recall a law suit of this kind, but it could happen....

I had the opportunity to work a NCAA-W summer league this year. The women had bobbypins, earrings, studs (tongue) I tried to have them remove the illegal objects, but the director insisted that "it's only summer ball". So we played on & without any incidents thank God! I'm learning that summer ball isn't as by the book as the regular season, but one would tend to think safety should be a goal year 'round :confused:

Only 119 days until the regular season tips off! Then we won't have to hear the tired "it's only summer ball" excuses anymore :D



coach: You didn't see that travel?
official: Yes but it's only summer ball.

And I would have said to the TD, if they sue you and me is that going to be your excuse? Summer ball does not excuse any safety issue. I know that is hard to fight for sometimes and I have been there as well. But I will not play a game with a clear safety violation.

Peace

Saftey rules should never be waived. End of discussion.

Agreed. Safety is for the kids. Hence why they make rules =P

-Lucas

Unfortunately, some officials will always find some kind of weak excuse not to take care of bidness.

I do not think that is fair. Many times the Tournament Director is more concerned about making the participants happy and they are unaware of the rules in the first place. I had the very same thing several years ago and I did not know what to do at the time. Now I take a much clearer stand and what is required as it deals with the rules. During the regular season this is not an issue because we are under the jurisdiction of the state and if we do not enforce the rules thoroughly, there is a different consequence. Often during the summer the TD wants to make everyone happy and they do not have a set of rules or an organization making sure they follow strict guidelines.

Peace

It's just summer ball..

Why do you have to call it so tight?

Don't call a travel...

What's a hand check?

It's just blood...

I agree with both of you.

On the one hand, TDs (and coaches, players, and Moms) are taking advantage of newer officials who aren't as sure of themselves. You get a 19 or 20 year old kid in there; with Mom screaming about all the money she just spent that morning getting her daughter hole-punched, coach saying you can't force his best player to the bench, and the TD (who essentially writes your paycheck) wanting to make the coach and mom (who essentially write his check) happy, and it's no wonder the refs cave.

On the other hand, there are enough veteran officials who should know better who come in with the "it's summer ball" attitude and never even question the little bit of tape on the ears.

If the safety issues don't convince you that you shouldn't let them play with jewelry, this should. You're screwing your fellow refs who now have to clean up your mess when they enforce the rule in the later games.

The officials for this tournament are varsity-level and college-level. It is a quality tournament with some of the top girls teams in Massacusetts and New Hampshire. The TD is the girls college coach. So...we don't have folks who lack rules knowledge or are uncomfortable enforcing the rules.

The assignor told me later he liked how I handled it and he would have backed me fully if I refused to allow the girl to play, even pulling all the officials from the courts, if it came to that. He was upset at the TD for her attitude, but as others have posted here, earrings and summer ball are common at the college level. And as Rut noted...the TD wants schools to come to this tournament and she thought the "tape 'em and waive 'em" policy was good enough.

Since it is her tournament, played under no formal sanction (T-shirts for the winners; bragging rights for anyone who wants; a couple of college coaches hanging around to scout and/or recruit), she can pick and chose the rules. We already had changed several rules: running time (except for foul shots and last two minutes of each half); no shot-clock (Mass. uses 30-second clock) or 10-second backcourt; uniform numbers didn't matter (one team had three '0's; another team had players with 3-digit numbers). I know that none of these are safety issues, but the rules are the rules. If we waive some rules (or the TD does), does it automatically follow that we can waive any rule?

It was not the same player, but your point is valid. This girl claimed she wears them during her high school games all year. I have had her team in past years and I can promise it would never happen in a sanctioned MIAA game I work. I still don't understand why the girls don't take them out.