Ask the Answer Person: Were proper precautions taken at Friday night's football game?

Posted: Tue, Sep 1, 2020 10:34 AM

(Jim e-mails): "Friday night's football game was quite startling in the lack of COVID – awareness and caution. Couldn't believe what we were watching. My wife and I had gone to very top of the stadium – there was a breeze up there at least and fewer people close to us. But our caution was not shared by 90% of the humans at the game: students, players, parents, grandparents, others. Didn't seem that many got the mayor's message about masks."

The Answer Person replies:

"There are many provisions in place at the stadium to remind spectators of COVID-19 safety measures. These include every other stadium row blocked off for seating; one-way direction signs for exiting and entering the stadium; extra bleachers added in the end zone for middle school students to allow for more spacing in the main bleachers; handing out a certain number of bracelets for admission into the bleachers; posted signage about social distancing; and plexiglass at the concession stand."

decorahnews.com also reached out to Decorah High School Associate Principal and Activities Director Adam Riley for comment about how the school's event hosting is going. His reply follows:

"We had a large number of staff members and volunteers that worked on Thursday and Friday night to help support us and are thankful for their work!!

In all, we feel things went well for our first home events. We are in full support of individuals wearing masks and will continue to require the wearing of masks for all of our indoor events. We feel our Decorah fans were very respectful of the guidelines that have been put in place and hope they will continue to do so in the coming weeks ahead so we can support our student athletes as they hope to continue the successful start they have had to their seasons. Before our next home volleyball match, we will be providing more marking in our bleachers and adjusting some of the items we are selling in the concession stand to help support more physical distancing and having masks worn correctly by students in attendance.

Managing the many elements that go into starting the academic portion of the school year in addition to our activities has been one of the larger challenges we have faced in quite some time. We are extremely thankful for having our students in the building and being able to participate in their activities. With continued cooperation from students, staff, parents and fans, we are very hopeful we can make improvements and have complete seasons."

The expectations for spectators attending activities in the Decorah School District can be found below.

Spectator Expectations Fall 2020