School is back in session and you know what that means, high school football.
It's a time for yelling, cheering, tackling and touchdowns but sometimes fans can take it too far.
Anne Arundel County Superintendent Mark Bettel sent a letter out to families stating after some disruptions in the first couple weeks of school, there will be new rules when it comes to sporting events.
"Football and athletics are great parts of our educational system here in Anne Arundel County as you can see here and people turn out to watch this and they deserve to be able to do that in an environment that's free of worrying about their safety,” said Bob Mosier the Chief Communications Officer Anne Arundel county Public Schools
New regulations go into effect Friday September 16th. Now when fans or students engage in violent behavior they will be removed and suspended from extracurricular activities for 90 days, youngsters must be accompanied by adults and even student athletes caught in such behavior will face consequences.
"We're all coming here for peace to support the football team and I think that any violence or anything like that they need to leave home,” said Markiti Wright whose nephew plays football at Glen Burnie
At the Glen Burnie versus South River High School football game, Some parents say they haven't seen any violent disturbances at football games and already feel safe
"I haven't seen one at Spalding or here I’m in the stands all the time cheering saying whose kid is that whose grandson is that and having fun in the stands and most people are having fun in the stands,” said Lionell Gray whose child that attends Glen Burnie
"They have so many school resource officer there’s at least three here today, they’ve got officers at the gate. The sides are separated. It seems safe we've never had an issue this is our second year of high school football,” said Jackie Propst whose son plays football.
Others say the new restrictions will be good for the younger crowd
"Well I like the fact that the middle school kids and the elementary school kids have to have a parent coming with them. We've been hearing rumors that the middle school kids are causing a little bit of issues but its good to have a little bit more parents in the stands,” said Thomas Polidore, whose child plays JV football.
Bedell says there will be a zero tolerance policy and that attendance to these activities is a privilege not a right.
