Crowds at Blue Springs high school football games must be kept to 100, judge rules
A Jackson County judge denied a request for a temporary restraining order that would have allowed crowds larger than 100 spectators at Friday night’s Blue Springs high school football games.
The district had already distributed 550 tickets for each of Friday night’s games — Blue Springs High School against Staley and Blue Springs South vs. Park Hill High School.
Parents of the visiting teams would not get in following the judge’s decision. A contingency plan already had prioritized other tickets — so those ticketholders knew they might not get in.
Still, Blue Springs Superintendent Paul Kinder said there would be some angry parents.
“Oh, yeah, not just our people,” Kinder told The Star after the hearing. “Every district around has angry people.”
Judge Cory L. Atkins listened to arguments from lawyers for the school district and Jackson County for about an hour Friday afternoon before announcing his decision. He said the issues presented did not rise to the high standard of issuing an emergency order ahead of a full trial next month, in which each side could present detailed evidence.
For that to occur, the district would have had to show that real harm would be done if crowds stayed within the 100-person limit and it had presented no concrete evidence of that.
“Injunctive relief is not appropriate,” Atkins said.
Blue Springs filed suit July 9, asking for a court order that would block the Jackson County Health Department from enforcing an order limiting outdoor gatherings to crowds of no more than 100 spectators because of the coronavirus.
The county health director, Bridgette Shaffer, and county administrator Troy Schulte threatened sanctions after the school system defied the county’s health order by allowing 430 people to attend the football season home opener Aug. 28 between Blue Springs High School and Liberty High School.
If the district continued to violate the rules, Shaffer and Schulte wrote, the county would revoke the licenses for all school concessions stands for the remainder of the season, order that athletes be quarantined for 14 days after each such event and ban all spectators at district fields for the remainder of the season.
Soccer, volleyball and others sports are also played in the fall.
Blue Springs High distributed four tickets for each of the home team’s football players for the game against Liberty. The school’s cheerleaders and dance team members were also given four tickets each and two tickets were allotted for each member of the visiting school’s football team and accompanying groups.
Attendance was “substantially lower” than the stadium’s capacity for 5,000 spectators, the district said, and fans were required to wear masks and practice social distancing.
The Blue Springs district argues that the county’s crowd limits for outdoor events are arbitrary, unfair and far stricter than neighboring jurisdictions. Clay County is permitting 25 percent capacity at high school football games, rather than setting a specific number as a ceiling, according to the lawsuit, and there are no limits in Platte and Cass counties.
Blue Springs plays in those jurisdictions, as well as against other eastern Jackson County teams, which have stuck to the 100-person limit, angering Blue Springs South fans who were not allowed to attend their first two football games of the season against Lee’s Summit North and Lee’s Summit West high schools.
Representing the district, attorney Jason Rew argued Friday that the county’s policies provide “mixed messaging” that is confusing and arbitrary.
One provision of Shaffer’s Aug. 21 health order states that “adult and youth sporting tournaments are permitted to take place, provided that adequate social distancing and mask wearing provisions are observed as is possible.” But it doesn’t say how big the crowd can be.
Indoor venues are allowed to have up to 50 percent capacity, provided six feet of separation can be guaranteed.
Transmission of the virus that causes COVID-19 is less likely at outdoor events than indoors, the district argued. Yet rather than following the indoor rules by setting a percentage ceiling, Shaffer’s order said only 100 people could gather at outdoor events.
“This order is contradictory to itself,” Rew told the judge.
But in her argument on behalf of the county, lawyer Amy Dawn Fitts said the county’s health order needed to be read as a whole and clearly states that 100 is the limit for outdoor gatherings. She further argued that the district had not met the legal test necessary to bring suit because the district had not suffered any harm.
There was no limit on district employees attending home games. The only ones harmed and that would, therefore, have legal standing might be the spectators barred from watching the games in person, she said. And none of them was party to the lawsuit.
Likewise, the district had not suffered any penalties and won’t likely, as Kinder said the high schools intended to comply with the 100-fan limit for now.
After Friday, both varsity football squads have three more home games on their schedules. Each team will almost certainly play one of those games under the crowd limit because those games are set for this month and the case won’t be heard until sometime in early October.
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 3:22 PM.
