Canton McKinley now requiring parents to attend basketball games with younger students

CANTON – A social media post announcing a new attendance policy at Memorial Field House drew criticism from a well-known community member over the weekend and a clarification from Canton City Schools.

In turn, the clarification modified the stance of the critic.

The new policy requires elementary and middle school students to be accompanied by and to sit with a parent or guardian to attend a boys or girls basketball game.

"No student below the ninth grade will be permitted to enter without a parent or guardian," the school district said.

The policy began Tuesday and runs through the winter sports season.

Retired McKinley football coach Thom McDaniels responded Sunday via his X account, @thomas_tmcdwgh: "Because of inappropriate behavior, my former school is requiring students below 9th grade to be accompanied by an adult in order to attend HS b-ball games. Do they all have an adult in their lives to do that? Are they all suddenly going to behave appropriately as freshmen?

"How can we have genuine 'feeder programs' K thru 12 by restricting the younger kids' exposure to the varsity programs & more mature behavior? Has intervention now become exclusion? This can't be the school system's best answer to this problem. You're better than that."

McDaniels spent 17 years (1982-97) as McKinley's head football coach prior to a brief run as a Canton City Schools athletic administrator. After head coaching stints at Warren Harding and Jackson, McDaniels returned to McKinley as head coach for one season in 2014.

The Canton City Schools post directed inquiries to Assistant Superintendent Jason Dixon. On Monday, Dixon supplied the Repository with a statement clarifying the policy and later fielded a phone call.

"We have seen an increase of younger students coming to our basketball games at the Field House that come unaccompanied, many of which are not Canton City School students," the statement says. "With this increase, we have seen an uptick in undesired behaviors that are difficult at times to manage in a venue such as the Field House, which includes students remaining for hours after the event has concluded.

"Our desire is to create a safe and enjoyable environment for all of our fans and patrons that come out and support McKinley High School boys and girls basketball programs and in order to maintain that level of safety and order at these contests we are asking students below the ninth grade come with a parent and/or guardian or an adult.

"We will still maintain our middle school section (section 3) where students can choose to sit with their friends and enjoy cheering on our teams. Again, the safety of our staff, students, and fans is our top priority and appreciate everyone's cooperation in this new policy."

When the Repository shared the clarified policy with McDaniels this morning, he said that in light of its contents he regretted making his social media post. He stood by his concern about limiting opportunities for younger students who might benefit from experiences at games.

"Knowing more about what inspired their decision, that it's a problem caused in part by kids outside Canton City Schools ... if I had known that, I wouldn't have said what I said," McDaniels said. "Being unaware doesn't excuse whatever angst I might have caused. I probably should have made an inquiry first."

Dixon, who frequented the Field House as a McKinley student in the 1990s, worked on the new policy with school administrator Joe Bogdan.

"We just want to maintain a safe and orderly environment, and we feel parents and guardians of students will cooperate," Dixon told the Repository. "We play high school football games in a pro football stadium. It's very difficult to manage. The same goes for an arena the size of the Field House."

Capacities at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium and Memorial Field House are approximately 23,000 and 4,500, respectively.

"We want students to come to the games," Dixon said. "We have made significant strides to make it affordable and attainable for all of our students to come and enjoy the game. We just want everyone to be able to enjoy the game."

Dixon said the policy, in part, is aimed at ensuring an adult is aware of younger students' whereabouts at games, and that students have rides home after games.

McKinley is a member of the Federal League, which sets a standard adult price of $7 for tickets bought pre-sale or online and $8 at the door.

"We are all free to sell to our own students as we wish," Bogdan said. "We provide Canton City Schools students with $4 individual tickets as well as the opportunity to purchase a pass for $23 that is good for every home event in all sports all year.

"We provide free passes for high school events to the middle school teams of each sport. We had 42 student passes donated through our 'adopt a Bulldog' campaign and provided an additional 50 passes to the pep club for free."

This article originally appeared on The Repository: New attendance policy for young students at McKinley basketball games