Parents of Brown County high school athletes are currently not allowed to attend athletic events in person due to COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, one Brown County parent filed a lawsuit against the school district and local health department to try to change that.
On Jan. 11, Richard Stanley Jr. filed a civil plenary lawsuit against Brown County Schools and the Brown County Health Department. Stanley is a lawyer and is representing himself in this matter.
He is asking the court to determine if the school district and health department have the authority to further restrict attendance at K-12 extracurricular or co-curricular events beyond what Gov. Eric Holcomb has ordered.
Holcomb’s executive order 20-50, which Stanley refers to, says that if a county is designated as “red” by the Indiana State Department of Health on the county metric map, then attendance limits on social gatherings and events “shall be limited to participants, support personnel and students’ parents, guardians, siblings and other minor children of a parent or guardian of students.”
Under the school district’s basketball season plan, if the county is under red status, admission to games is limited to 35 people, including practices. Only participants and support personnel will be allowed to be there. For weeks, Brown County has been designated as “red” with more than 800 confirmed COVID-19 cases since March.
Because of the limits on spectators, the school district live-streams games on YouTube.
Holcomb’s executive order 20-53, which Stanley also refers to, is an extension of executive order 20-50. It also states that “unless otherwise specified, nothing in this executive order prohibits a county, political subdivision, local government entity or school corporation from imposing more stringent requirements than this executive order.”
BCS parents have been able to travel to away games at other school districts. Some districts do have restrictions in place and those athletic departments communicate with Brown County’s so that families know what limits and precautions need to be taken, Superintendent Laura Hammack said.
Stanley does not believe BCS’ limits are warranted.
“Plaintiff (Stanley) has been attending his sons’ basketball games since his (oldest) son was in the sixth grade. During that time, the plaintiff has probably only missed less than a handful of games, both home and away,” his motion reads.
“His son is now a senior and will not be playing college basketball. In the case of plaintiff, what this means is that this basketball season in the pinnacle of his son’s basketball career and the last time plaintiff will ever see his son play organized basketball.”
The motion further states that if Stanley is not allowed to attend the games in person he will “suffer irreparable harm that cannot be cured with financial damages or any form of recovery after his son’s games have already been played.”
Hammack read portions of a letter Stanley wrote to the Brown County Schools Board of Trustees at their meeting Jan. 7. Stanley did not attend the meeting, and because the school board has a three-minute limit on public comments, Hammack had him send parts of his letter he wanted read to make sure it could fit within the limit.
“A threshold question for the board to consider is what authority is being relied upon to go beyond the governor’s specific order?” Stanley wrote.
He also asked the board if the attendance restrictions were reasonable, especially for parents of senior athletes who will not play sports in college.
“I hope you can understand how important this is for me and other parents like me,” he wrote.
“It is hard to understand, and frankly hard to defend, a governmental authority, whether it be a school official or health official, inserting itself between a child and his parent. It is only in the rarest of situations where the government should be allowed to exclude a parent from personal involvement in his child’s activities and where such an extraordinary intrusion occurs the governmental authority for such actions should be clear.”
The board did not respond to the news of a potential lawsuit after Hammack read the letter. The court paperwork was filed four days later.
On Jan. 11, Hammack released a statement on behalf of the district stating that the attendance restriction was a recommendation from the health department.
“Brown County Schools greatly value extracurricular activities for our students as well as attendance by family members at school athletic events. It is only during this extraordinarily difficult pandemic and with Brown County being designated a ‘red’ county on the Indiana county metrics map that the Brown County Health Department has recommended against attendance by family members at school athletic events,” she said.
“We have sought to work out a resolution to this matter that best balances the interest of all concerned and will continue to do so.”
Brown County Health Officer Dr. Norman Oestrike, who is in charge of the day-to-day operation of the health department, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Stanley argues that Holcomb’s executive order 20-50 indicates that the health department “has no role whatsoever in determining attendance limits at basketball games when a county has been designated red” because Holcomb “has already determined the appropriate restrictions.”
The document states that Stanley “engaged in settlement discussions” with one of the defendants from Jan. 5 to 10, but that the discussions “were ultimately unsuccessful.”
In his motion, Stanley wrote that if his son was injured while playing a basketball game, no one could prevent him from leaving the bleachers and going to his son’s side to make sure he was OK. “And yet, the current position of the school and health department regarding attendance at high school basketball games does just that,” he wrote.
The first home varsity boys basketball game will be Saturday, Jan. 23. Stanley requested a ruling from the court prior to that date.
A court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19 at 2:15 p.m.
