‘It was a very unsafe situation’

Schools chief defends chaperone rule following ‘mayhem’ at game

NEW HAVEN — At one point during Friday night’s football game between James Hillhouse and Hamden high schools, the Hillhouse principal straddled a fence to keep unruly students from re-entering the stadium. Cheerleaders were sent home early.

Thaddeus Reddish, a former police officer who now heads security for the New Haven Public School system, said never in his career had he dealt with so many children in such a riotous situation.

“This was bigger picture than just this football game,” Reddish said. “Homicides are taking place in this city. Kids are involved.”

Reddish told the city Board of Education Mondaythat in light of recent violence in the city, members of the Police Department’s intelligence unit were there to prevent potential gunfire.

Most Board of Education members backed the decision of Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey and her team to require students to be accompanied by a parent or guardian at future sporting events.

“It was a very unsafe situation,” Tracey told the board Monday. “As leader of the school district I had to do something for the safety of all involved.”

Tracey said the measure is not meant to be permanent.

For now, however, a parent or guardian is required to be “present for as long as the student is in attendance,” Tracey wrote in an email Monday.

School board member Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur applauded the move.

“At this point I think that is the right decision,” Jackson-McArthur said. “Anything could have happened that night.”

Jackson-McArthur said from what she has heard from parents who contacted her after the game, it a volatile situation with young, unaccompanied children all over the place.

“It became mayhem,” JacksonMcArthur said.

Citywide Athletic Director Erik Patchkofsky told the school board there were as many as 4,000 people at the game, including 1,500 children. Some, he said, did not come to watch the game.

Multiple fights broke out in the stands, according to Patchkofsky. Some students who had been kicked out of the stadium found their way back in. By halftime, Patchkofsky said the situation was deteriorating to the point it was unsafe.

Hillhouse Principal Glen Worthy said he grew up in New Haven, and Friday was the first time he felt unsafe.

Of the three or four fights he said he personally broke up, none involved Hillhouse students.

“One student from Hillhouse got into a fight and he was being chased,” Worthy said.

“It seems like this was planned for students to meet up and fight,” Patchkofsky said. “A lot of stuff going on in the neighborhood right now. There was a plan to come to the stadium and settle issues.”

No arrests were made.

Board member Darnell Goldson, who questioned the new policy, said he was not downplaying the situation but worried that good kids would have to suffer for the actions of a few. Many students, he added, may not have parents who can take them to a game.

“Don’t make a policy this far reaching based on one moment,” said Goldson, adding he has had experience as a Black male being “crowd controlled.”

Tracey said rather than punishing students, the district is trying to protect them.

Goldson said he wondered why the game wasn’t stopped if the situation was so bad.

Reddish said if the game had been stopped early and everyone forced to leave at once there would have been a riot that would have spilled out into the streets.

“We decided to let it play out,” Reddish said of the game.

He and Mayor Justin Elicker, a member of the school board, both promised an increased security presence for the next game.

“Safety first, right?” Elicker said, adding he agreed with the district’s decision to require children to be accompanied by an adult.

Although there are metal detectors at games to keep out guns, Patchkofsky said it is difficult to identify district students because many have been out of school for 18 months due to the pandemic.

He called the temporary policy the prudent thing to do.

Board member Ed Joyner also called it a response to an immediate problem.

“These kids are settling scores, and beefs,” Joyner said. “If I were superintendent I would err on the side of safety.”