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Open letter to the county on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page:
An open letter to our community about youth sports in Humboldt County:
The California Department of Public Health recently published an updated guideline limiting the number of observers for youth sports to one observer per child. Unfortunately, it seems that co-parenting families were not considered in forming this orientation. The requirement of a strict rule of only one observer per child forces children to choose which parent is considered essential to attend an event and ostracizes co-parental families. All parents, including stepfathers, have the right to attend and attend an event involving their child, and must be able to choose for themselves whether or not their participation in their child’s sporting event is necessary.
The Sheriff’s Office is not here to dictate age-appropriate supervision for youth sports and will not be present at these sporting events to monitor the supervision of the parents of its young athletes.
Throughout this pandemic, the Sheriff’s Office has adopted an educational approach to COVID-19 precautions, rather than an enforcement approach. We feel that this approach continues to be successful in our municipality. I encourage all participants in youth sporting events to continue to maintain social distance and to practice COVID-19 safety precautions, such as wearing a facial cover and staying at home if you are feeling unwell.
Sincerely,
Sheriff William F. Honsal