Medford police officers patrol near the entrance to Spiegelberg Stadium Friday night at a South Medford varsity football game.

The Medford School District has scrapped the middle-school student section at Spiegelberg Stadium, requiring K-8 students to be accompanied by a parent or guardian when they come to the venue and increasing the number of security officers at games.

Those actions by school district administrators come in response to “an increase in unsafe behavior in the community involving middle school students,” according a prepared statement the district posted on its website. The announcement came ahead of South Medford High School’s home football game against South Salem High School Friday night.

“For those students who are disappointed, I’d like to let them know we’d like them to come out there and watch the game and cheer on the team with their parents. They’ll have a great time; there is great football to watch. I still think it’s going to be a great night,” District Athletic Director Fred Kondziela said in an interview. “I’d like to thank the parents and guardians supporting this decision.” 

The district has had a hard time finding game management staff, who are not police officers, according to district spokesperson Natalie Hurd. The shortage of these types of staff members, she said, is no different than recruitment problems in other industries. 

“Since COVID-19, we’ve seen a decrease in applicants,” Hurd said. 

Kondziela estimated that during pre-COVID-19 years, gaming staff was as high as 40; now it’s down to the fewer than 30. He echoed Hurd’s reasoning for the shortage, and added there are bus driver shortages, as well.

School resource officer Dan Ashworth, whose office is at Oakdale Middle School, right behind the football stadium, is a new security officer to the district. He has worked a few games and said he believes the new policy is reasonable, both as a security officer and a parent himself.

“That’s the hard thing about being in positions where we have to make decisions for the greater good,” Ashworth said. “Is it fair that everybody has to have a parent or adult when they come to the game? Maybe not. But as a parent and police officer who works in the school — our kids between 11-13 years old sometimes need more supervision.”

Ashworth said he has seen one to two staff members trying to cover as many as 100 students in the student section. As many as half them have been known to leave their seats and create mischief elsewhere in the stadium, he said.

Those behaviors come on top of the fact that some middle-school students who come to the games have been known to start fights off campus — another reason to consider a policy change, according to Ashworth.

He said the district received four new school resource officers who will help at the games. 

“Ultimately, I want all of these events to be safe for everybody —  to and from and during the games,” Ashworth said. “I think across the board, everybody agrees, that if our students and parents are able to be at the games and do that safely and respectively, then there’s no problems. Obviously, when we run into large issues, then things have to change.”

High school students haven’t been the source of problems during home games, said Kondziela.

“Honestly, high school students are doing fantastic,” he said, noting they’re probably more well-behaved because they are more engaged in various aspects of the stadium experience.

Kondziela said the new policy is not a reflection of all middle-school students’ behavior at home games. 

“Most middle-school students are doing a fine job, but when there’s not adequate staffing, we need to change plans,” he said. “That’s all we’re doing.”