Attending her nephew’s basketball games at Bennett High School has always been a family affair for Keisha Lawrence, but this season she’s out of luck.
While the local governing body for high school athletics last week began allowing home teams to host up to two spectators for each one of their athletes, Buffalo Public Schools has stuck to a no-spectator policy out of concern over Covid-19.
That decision has raised the ire of some parents and family members, such as Lawrence, who are asking the district to reconsider before the shortened season winds down in less than three weeks.
A petition has been circulating and parent advocates plan to hold a news conference Friday.
“I know the gyms can’t be packed,” said Lawrence, whose nephew, Demario James, is a standout guard for the Bennett team, “but I think the students should be allowed at least two family members.”
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It has been a familiar story line in Buffalo Public Schools, which has been extremely cautious in its approach to the pandemic and was the last of the local school districts to reopen for in-person instruction, on Feb. 1.
“It’s just irrational,” Samuel L. Radford III said of the no-spectator policy. “Why is it safe for everybody else and not safe for our kids?”
Radford, the longtime parent advocate, has been critical of how the district has handled reopening the schools and is among those leading the charge for parent spectators at basketball games, along with his son, Aymanuel, a former assistant coach in the district.
“We’re just asking to have the same rights as every other parent in Section VI has,” Samuel Radford said.
The district explained its rationale in a letter, citing concerns over emerging Covid-19 variants, the size of its school gymnasiums, the ability to keep fans socially distanced and the lack of staffing to enforce safety protocols at the games.
New York State is poised to cancel six Regents exams scheduled for June because of the uneven learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Superintendent Kriner Cash addressed the issue this week when he was asked about the no-spectator policy by the Board of Education.
“What we’re doing is we’re streaming the games so these games can be viewed online, but at this point, we’re keeping to a no-spectator policy,” Cash said.
“We need to keep these student-athletes safe,” he added.
Mark DiFilippo, executive director of Section VI, was unsure of how many districts decided not to allow parents to attend basketball games this season, but said the no-spectator policy is common with other high school sports such as bowling and swimming, where the venues are smaller.
Section VI includes 96 schools across 78 districts, both big and small, so DiFilippo understands the position of a large, urban district such as Buffalo.
“Most of the gyms are small. They still don’t have kids back fully in their buildings,” DiFilippo said. “How do you justify bringing those parents in when the kids aren’t even back in school?”
In fact, DiFilippo said Section VI members were “pretty split” on whether to allow any fans this season because of the ability of schools to manage spectators.
Lawrence, a front-line worker, doesn’t in any way want to downplay Covid-19, but she wonders if the district isn't being a little too cautious. Lawrence said she has not seen any of Demario’s games livestreamed, and if the school is livestreaming them, the family was never provided information on how or where to log on.
At minimum, parents are asking the district to consider allowing them to attend Senior Night, the last home game when the senior players are honored.
“Don’t take away the senior game,” Samuel Radford said. “That’s the last time most of them are ever going to play organized basketball.”
“Everyone who is an athlete understands how important Senior Night is,” Aymanuel Radford said. “It’s like a rite of passage.”
