As students here at Warren Township continue to get hyped for the ongoing football season, filling the stands to capacity, and showing their spirit in the student section, the district has started to implement new rules for the stands this season, and even renewing old ones for the safety of our students, staff, and visitors.
On August 31st, toward the end of our first home game against, an altercation broke out between students and adults that had occured. Law enforcement got involved and was able to confirm none of the students were Warren Township students, but this event and past altercations had the district discussing the best approach to continue having school sanctioned events while keeping every party safe. The next day our Superintendent, Dr. Danny Woestman, sent out a summary of the events to the students, parents, and staff and how the situation was handled. That same email contained new athletic event procedures which quickly became the talk of the halls amongst students and staff.
There were several new procedures mentioned in Dr. Woestman’s email, such as restricting who is allowed to attend games, closing concessions early, closing entry after the 3rd quarter, and the most controversial, requiring school IDs to enter the game. Some believe that requiring school ID’s is outrageous and going to drive students away from games because of cases where students were not given an ID, or lost theirs. Though, this also has the counter argument that it confirms everyone in the Home side is affiliated with Warren Township, and students have several resources to obtain ID’s at school.
Most people fail to recognize one fact, that pre-covid football games required ID to enter. Class of 2023 was the last class to ever experience a pre-pandemic game with this rule, the staff sure is familiar with it. Some could even make the argument that GoFan was just another form of identification because it required you to insert your ID number to receive your free ticket, so how is it different? Our current classes fail to recognize that ID’s are just a part of not only their high school career, but also soon their entire life, they are seen as restrictions to fun at school. I believe that requiring ID’s are a great way to keep everyone safe at games and prevent any more conflicts at our school events, it also practices the responsibility of keeping one on you at all times. Our homecoming game is coming up very soon and we know it’s going to be busy, so lets keeps everyone safe and things running smoothly, so bring your school ID!
