Wichita schools will now allow fans at sporting events, including football on Friday

Wichita schools will now allow parents and other fans to be spectators at sporting events.

The change will be implemented this week, including in time for Friday night football games among Wichita Public Schools. Face masks and social distancing will be required.

People who don’t follow the rules may be kicked out and banned from future games.

The USD 259 Board of Education made the change at Monday’s meeting in a 6-1 vote at the recommendation of athletic director J. Means. The general public is not allowed at the government meetings due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The district will issue vouchers to athletes as a way to limit in-person attendance. High school athletes get four vouchers for each event while middle school athletes get two vouchers, due to their smaller athletic facilities. Attendees must still buy tickets.

The guidelines only apply to fall sports, and vouchers will only be used for ticketed events. That means football, soccer and volleyball are affected, as well as band, cheer and dance. Other activities, such as cross country, would apparently fall under the same rules but would not use the voucher system.

Whether spectators will be allowed at winter sports has not been determined.

All spectators must wear a mask to get in and they are required to wear their mask the entire time. They must also answer screening questions, though temperature checks will not be conducted. Superintendent Alicia Thompson said that was because the outdoor thermometers are too inaccurate.

No student sections will be allowed, and all children must be accompanied by an adult.

No concession stands will be open. People may bring unopened, non-alcoholic drinks. Food is not permitted.

District security and administrators will enforce the rules, and Wichita police officers will be called if necessary, Means said. Fans who ignore the rules may be kicked out and banned from future sporting events.

“If we continue to have those problems with specific (people), we will take the vouchers away,” said Means.

Board member Mike Rodee voiced the most concern with the plan, though he voted for it. He also questioned whether COVID-19 indicators will worsen in the county “because we’re being a little bit selfish about watching a football game.”

“I want to see kids in classrooms and on the field, and I don’t want to shut those things down. The parents are about the 10th priority to me on this,” he said, adding that he understands the point of view of parents. “I want to see kids in the classroom more than I want to see parents in the stadiums.”

Wichita middle and high school classes are entirely online, and the school board initially canceled the fall sports season. A revision last month to the board of education’s reopening guide allowed fall sports to continue.

The school board will re-evaluate the district’s reopening on Oct. 26. If there are any changes with in-person and remote learning, that will go into effect Nov. 9 with the start of the second quarter.

Thompson said that the district may move from the orange zone to the yellow zone, depending on the COVID-19 data. That would permit middle and high schoolers to return to in-person classes. Student-athletes would likely still be required to use remote learning.

As of Monday, one key indicator was still in the red zone, which calls for moving all classes online and stopping all sports. That indicator is the rate of new cases compared to population. While the most recent number was in the red zone, it was an improvement over the previous week.

Another important indicator is the positive test rate. The most recent testing data was in the yellow zone, but it has worsened for three weeks in a row.

Rodee said he is concerned about people ignoring the athletic event rules.

“That’s what bothers me a little bit,” he said. “Our student athletes have done a fantastic job of keeping themselves safe and clean. ... Now we’re going to bring into the stadium parents and families, but we don’t have control over what they do during the day and what they could be bringing in and spreading. And we’re trying to keep the numbers down. It makes it really nervous for me to bring outside people into our stadiums and gyms especially and create a problem where we have an outbreak ... where we have to trace it.”

Football fans at Bishop Carroll Catholic High School have ignored the Sedgwick County mask and social distancing order, as well as Wichita’s mask law, the student newspaper at Wichita West High School has reported.

In nearby Derby, the high school football team has been classified as a coronavirus cluster by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The state’s announcement did not indicate that spectators were part of the outbreak.

Means said Monday that there have been “two incidents” involving Wichita volleyball teams and COVID-19, but did not elaborate.

Rodee asked about a farther distance for social distancing, citing a 22-foot measure used in a church due to singing and the spreading of aerosols. He said that fans tend to move closer to the action when open seats are available.

“The fans in the stands will be yelling, not sitting there quietly with their hands in their laps,” Rodee said. “I’m hoping if they’re going to the games that they’re not being quiet.”

“We will ask those folks to social distance the best they can,” Means said. “... We’re asking you to cooperate. But do I expect somebody to have a 22-foot tape measure out checking that, I have to say Mike we probably won’t have that.”

Rodee added another warning for spectators.

“If we do allow this, I want to make sure that the parents realize that they’re the ones that are going to kill basketball and whatever comes in the spring with softball and those sports,” Rodee said. “This is the trial that is going to make the decision on what happens, and it could wipe out the whole sporting deal.”

This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 9:30 PM.