Recently there have been magazine articles and broadcasts on TV concerning
the growing problem of assault against sports officials. For some reason,
this has been a growing problem over the last several years. Many states
have enacted laws which make assault on sports officials a higher level of
crime than the same assault would be in other circumstances.
Fortunately, we have not had a problem with assault on officials in our
area. At least I am not aware of one. I did hear of one assault by an
adult player on one of our soccer referees many years ago, but don't know of
anything since then. I expect (and we all certainly hope) that things will
stay this way, and that assault will never be something that any of us
experience.
Bills which generally follow the recommendations of the National Association
of Sports Officials (NASO) were introduced in both houses of the NY State
Legislature this year. The legislative session ended before final action
was taken on either one.
Please contact our Senator (Tom Libous for all of us, I think) and
Assemblymen (Jay Dinga or Bob Warner for most, if not all, of us) to express
your support for this legislation. It could make a difference. The Senate
bill is S.5082. The number for the Assembly bill is A7705.
Let's make a difference,
Warren