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Open letter to the province on the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page:
An open letter to our community about youth sports in Humboldt County:
The California Department of Public Health has recently issued updated guidelines limiting the number of observers for youth sports to one observer per child. Unfortunately, it seems that family parents were not considered during the formation of this guidance. The mandate to oblige a strict rule of only one observer per child forces children to make a choice between which parent is deemed necessary to attend a meeting and to reject families with parents. Every parent, including stepparents, has the right to attend an event and watch their child, and must be able to choose for themselves whether their attendance at the child’s sporting event is necessary.
The sheriff is not here to indicate age-appropriate supervision for youth sports there and will not attend these sporting events to oversee parental supervision of their youth athletes.
During this entire pandemic, the sheriff followed an educational approach to COVID-19 precautions, rather than an enforcement approach. We feel that this approach is still successful in our country. I encourage everyone who attends youth sports events to continue with social distance and practice the safety measures of COVID-19, such as covering a face and staying home when you feel sick.
Sincerely
Sheriff William F. Honsal