District finds mask edict hard to enforce
On Sept. 1, Floyd County Schools released updated guidelines for spectators and volunteers of Fcs-hosted athletic events beginning Monday, Sept. 7. Among the highlights of those guidelines was a face covering requirement for all spectators and volunteers.
However, less than two weeks into the new guidelines, FCS has struggled to enforce the policies, as non-compliance is an issue being noticed.
Glenn White, Superintendent of Floyd County Schools, confirmed masks are to be worn by all spectators and volunteers from the time they enter the facility to the time they leave.
“We have not told (spectators) to leave (the venue) or anything, but we do want them wearing the mask,” White said in a phone interview. “We’re not going to let you in unless you have your mask. You should have one to get in.”
White said all spectators without masks will be refused entry.
“That was our first step in making sure you had a mask,” White said. “Once they get into the game and ... they’re seated, we want them to social distance.”
The guidelines from FCS strongly recommends all families to sit together, as well as children sitting with their parents before and during the contest.
White said enforcement falls to school administration and security, as sporting events typically have at least one off-duty law enforcement official present.
In terms of enforcing these guidelines, White said individual schools would communicate with him, the deputy superintendent or Chief Security and Safety Officer Rick Flanigan.
“If (an incident) caused a safety issue, then yes, we’re going to address that,” White said. “We’ll have to see exactly what’s going on.”
White acknowledged enforcement of the mask mandate is challenging.
“Then you’re into basically having to put people out of the gate that you really don’t want to do that to,” White said. “Those are issues and you’re at that point of do I ... have these people to run off or do we let them sit there without the mask on? That’s kind of where you are in these situations.”
One worrying sign for the district is that of high school kids crowding in typical student sections of football stadiums. White said, based on his observations, some high school kids do not appear to be heeding advice about social distancing.
“Even though we’ve talked to ... a lot of them, they get to a football game (and) they think it’s just a normal football game like they’ve always gone to,” White said. “What I had rather not do, I don’t really want to get into punishing a kid for that if I can keep from it, although if we had to, we would. But I had rather not punish kids for that because we’re punishing them for behavior they’re normally doing which is being high school kids and being around each other because they are social.”
White continued the objective is not to punish students over social distancing, but FCS does want students to socially distance themselves.
The guidelines specify student sections would be allowed “with proper face coverings or masks.”
“Do we want them to wear the mask, of course we do. Are we going to make sure they wear the mask or they’re not coming in, yes we will,” White said. “But as far as telling you we’re going to supervise them every second inside the gate and make sure they have it on, we’re not going to do that.”
Another stipulation of the FCS guidelines is “announcers will make multiple public service announcements regarding everyday prevention of COVID-19 throughout games.”
With fall sports in full swing across the county and northwest Georgia, White said he wants people to attend the games, but also would like people to wear masks during events.
“We would like for them to do that and we can do more reminders of wearing masks and social distancing,” White said. “That’s what we want to have happen.”
Calls have now been made statewide encouraging people to wear masks, and White echoed that signal from the Department of Public Health.
“In my dealings with DPH, although the mask won’t totally prevent it, it does help,” White said.
The message and intention from FCS is clear: safety is the No. 1 priority.
“We want people to wear their mask at games as a safety factor for all of our parents and students,” White said. “We want everyone to be safe and we don’t want COVID to spread, and the way be can do that is by wearing our masks.”