T Up a Fan?!?

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by TimTaylor

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!

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

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.

[icallfouls]

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.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by icallfouls

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.

Again no one has advocated doing that.

I really wish that people would READ instead of react.

[TimTaylor]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Again, no one is attempting to prevent the parent from participating in their proper role as the legal decision maker for the injured child.

Maybe it was chseagle's statement "If I was working crowd control in this situation, I would physically put myself between the parent & the student-athlete so that they could not become one until after removed from the court."
or yours "I won't but security might."

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.

Actually they are very much related. Preventing a parent immediate access to the child in order to gain the information they may need in order to make decisions, in and of itself violates that right.

The bottom line is that basketball rules are just that - they have no legal standing. By contrast, the rights I've referred to are derived from portions of the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th and 14th amendments to the constitution and numerous case law decisions dating back to the early 1900's.

The game is already interrupted for the injury. A parent entering solely to evaluate the nature and extent of an injury to their child is not disrupting anything, and in reality may help the situation resolve more quickly. T away if you want - by rule you can.....just be prepared to be crucified in the court of public opinion.

Anyway, I'm done here...this one's been flogged enough!