Wow. We are not talking about a fight. We are talking about an injured child. You talk as if there are paramedics on hand waiting to treat injuries. What's happening until the paramedics get there (assuming paramedics are even needed)? You are being ridiculous in your abuse of power. I can see where it comes from - you definitely have a power issue.

I won't, but security might.

You don't belong out there. It's that simple. I don't understand why people have such a hard time grasping this. The playing court is for the players and officials, no one else. PERIOD.

When there is an injury the appropriate people are beckoned on to attend to that individual.

OK I give up.

Good because Dad's butt belongs in the stands. That is the area to which his admission ticket entitles him, not the playing court.

For the sake of argument, let's say that a child suffers a life-threatening injury on the court and the game is stopped. What skills does the average parent have which is going to help that child? Unless the parent is an EMT (fireman/police/first response trained) or medical doctor what good is it going to do to have the person down there? Is it going to please you that your child was able to die in your arms?

What happens when your child is transported to the hospital for surgery? Does the surgeon permit mom and dad into the operating room? No, you sit in the hallway and wait while the appropriate people handle the situation. This is no different, but because there isn't a wall between the stands and the court people somehow feel entitled to come out there. People really need to get over their sense of self-importance and remain where they belong.

Actually Dave, from a legal standpoint he has no power. The parent or legal guardian of a minor is the only one that can consent or revoke permission to treat the minor in their charge. If the coach, trainer, paramedic, doctor, etc. wants to do something the parent can step in and say "don't touch my child" and that legally revokes any previous permission, written or otherwise. Anyone who interferes or attempts to interfere with a parent or guardian is committing one or more criminal acts - could be anything from custodial interference to assault and/or battery. This goes for a security guard or anyone else as well. The only entity that can override parental authority is a court of law. There would have to be significant extenuating circumstances to legitimately prevent a parent or guardian from going to the aid of or making decisions regarding the care of their child, and I can absolutely guarantee the NFHS "you can't come onto the court" rule won't qualify. If anyone tried to interfere with my going to the aid of or being involved in decisions regarding my injured child, I can guarantee they would be arrested - and I would pursue both criminal and civil actions.

Sometimes I can't believe the illusion of power some folks have!

OK, rant mode off.....

Congrats on hitting that 1000 post milestone!:D:D:D:D

Happy Holidays my friend! Heard it was snowing in Dallas today - keep warm & stay dry!

Thanks Tim! I was going to say something about a lawsuit but I really don't know anything about the legal issues involved so I didn't want to say something I had no backing for (what a concept, eh?). Anyway, I am not going to say anything more right now about this subject. I will let you and others carry on the argument. You can't have a rational argument with the irrational, after all.

Thanks for the kudos on the post count - where are my prizes??

It's like friggin' Oregon in Dallas today. And I am supposed to be catching a flight to Portland tomorrow - I hope it doesn't get cancelled. It's nasty here.

Merry Xmas, my friend...

Again, no one is attempting to prevent the parent from participating in their proper role as the legal decision maker for the injured child. Why are you equating a prohibition to run onto the court without proper authorization and/or escort with blocking the parent from making a legitimate medical decision? The two are totally unrelated.

The parent needs to remain in the stands until properly summoned if needed. You wouldn't contend that the parent is being prevented from fulfilling his/her proper role as the decision maker at the hospital because the person isn't allowed into the operating room would you? If something happens during a surgery and a doctor takes action in the course of the operation are you saying that you will try to have him arrested and pursue criminal and civil proceedings because you weren't permitted to be at your child's side holding his/her hand? Good luck with that.

a real situation
 

This is a situation that happened to me in a ball game several years ago.

Local rivalry game with one very talented team, and one not so talented. The better team (A) was struggling early and had just started to make a run that would give them an 8 point lead.

Team A made a series of substitutions and my partner had just given the ball to B for an inbound. I am near the division line when all of a sudden coach A starts screaming for TO. The actions and conduct of the coach were so out of character that I blew my whistle to stop the action. I looked at the end of Bench A and see one of the players that had just been removed from the game colapse to the floor in a heap. It didn't look as serious as it turned out to be. BTW game is being played in B's gym.

Parents and other family members are running onto the floor (there is not a lot of room on the endlines, they had to cross the floor somehow). People are on the phone calling 9-1-1. The player's mother is screaming at the top of her lung's to the player "come back to" "Shelia" over and over.

GM consisted of the coach and the scorer's table personnel and a few others that also had other school duties. Due to the financial situation of the school there really wasn't anyone there that could offer assistance. The officials on the game had no knowledge of any kind that this player had a condition. The young man died in front of everyone that night.

As officials, had we started blowing our whistle and tried to keep this player's family from him at this time we would have had far more trouble on our hands than we would have wanted.

My point being, even if the injury doesn't initially seem serious to you, there might be other factors at work and preventing family to come to a players aid is not our job, nor is it worthy of a T.

I also have had games where players got fouled and the resulting contact lead to a broken wrist and a blown out knee. We did our job and got out of the way of the people who knew the situation better than the officials did. We usually only see these kids for a 1.5 hours. Part of our job is safety of the players, not to determine who offers assistance.

If the parent still wishes to say something, let GM handle it.

Just my 2 pennies worth.

Hopefully Santa will leave a sense of perspective under the tree for you tonight. ;)

Do you have any experience in crowd control/security?

It's not an abuse of power, it's called keeping all unneeded personnel away from the scene to maintain order for the medical personnel on hand in order to do what they need to do. This regulation comes to play whether it's a college football game or a rock concert. I've worked both with similar situations. Whether it's on the court/stage/field or up among the patrons in the stands, in a medical assist circumstance the only people allowed to be directly involved are the medical personnel/first responders.

In the situation of a parent being involved during the initial processing is if the parent is themselves a medical professional, otherwise they must remian a spectator until their child is removed from the court.

The only time a parent is allowed to be involved during the whole process is if the child involved is a young child (8-10 & below in age).

Question:
"What skills does the average parent have which is going to help that child?"

Answer:
Medical History


A1 gets injuried, - Ref beckons A's Coach onto the court, a parent and a Doc rush the court to help without prior authorization. Is that one or two T's?

Again no one has advocated doing that.

I really wish that people would READ instead of react. :(

Am I the only one who sees this statement as ironic?

That information would be on the form filled out by the parent/guardian at the beginning of the season.

Yes, you are.

It is so like you to try to turn such a statement around and point it at an official who insists that people don't go where they shouldn't. You simply don't grasp the argument.

You probably have a picture of an official running over trying to stop the people from coming out of the stands. That is not realistic.

What is realistic is for the official to find a far away location until the situation finishes and then to assess whatever penalties are necessary for the conduct. That is a big difference from being personally involved, and that is what makes the people who run over "self-important" and the official not, hence there is nothing ironic about the original statement. Do you need a lesson in the usage of the word? mbyron can certainly fill you in.