Dear BPS Families,
Enjoying Friday night football games under the lights at Lee Snider Stadium is a long-standing tradition in our Bixby community. With the current success of our Spartan football team, the Pride of Bixby Band, and our high school dance and cheer squads, attendance at home games is at record high levels. We are quickly outgrowing our facility. As our district moves to the largest classification of 6AI for all athletic programs and activities next year, it is clear that we will need to address our stadium capacity in future bond issue proposals.
In the meantime, we continue to experience significant issues due to overcrowding at our stadium, specifically related to safety and crowd control. Of particular concern is the large numbers of children that typically congregate around the concession stands and behind our home bleachers. Unfortunately, we have had numerous incidents at home contests this year involving student altercations and injuries, partly due to challenges with supervising these groups. The district contracts with an outside security firm to assist school administration with crowd management, yet even with this supervision in place, it is proving very difficult to effectively control the large numbers of people around our stadium.
Given these challenges, we need your help in order to preserve a safe and orderly environment for families and students. We recently met with our principals and athletic department to develop guidelines and procedures to enhance the safety and security of our home games.
These new guidelines are effective immediately.
The band will move to the south end of the visitor's stands, facing our fans. High school students will be moved to the south end zone. The southernmost portion of the home stands will then be reserved for middle school students.
Students are expected to remain in the stands unless they are traveling to/from the concession stands or restrooms. Students are encouraged to use the concession stands on the visitor’s side to alleviate congestion on the home side concession stand.
Elementary-age students (grades PK-6) will only be admitted to the game with an adult. Once in the stadium, students will be asked to sit with their family members.
The gated area immediately behind the center of home stands will be closed. There will be no foot traffic behind the bleachers other than for members of the visiting team.
Students will not be allowed to play football, “run around,” or loiter behind the home bleachers, around the concession stands, or at the north and south ends of the stadium.
Students are expected to follow all reasonable requests from security personnel and school officials. Failure to comply may result in a student being asked to contact parents and leave the stadium and/or cause them to be subject to school-related consequences upon their return to school.
We greatly value the strong support of our athletic programs by our families and community. By implementing these new procedures, we hope to keep our stadium events safe, orderly, and enjoyable for all our students and guests. We appreciate your help.
Thank you.
Rob Miller
Superintendent