Youth sports officials and referees are throwing in their whistles at record rates, Brian Kilmeade reported Friday on “Fox & Friends.”
According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, 80 percent of high school sports officials quit before their third year on the job.
One driving force behind the trend is increasingly abusive and belligerent behavior by parents, including verbal abuse, threats and even fights.
For example, a baseball game in June for 7-year-olds in Lakewood, Colo. descended into a wild brawl among parents after a dispute over a call by a 13-year-old umpire. Several arrests were made by police.
These adults took over the field and began assaulting each other on 6/15 during a youth baseball game. We’re looking for any info, in particular to ID the man in the white shirt/teal shorts. Several people have already been cited in this fight and injuries were reported. pic.twitter.com/ieenhwCrbU
— Lakewood Police (@LakewoodPDCO) June 18, 2019
Barry Mano, president of the National Association of Sports Officials, told Fox News that incidents like that one are far from isolated. – READ MORE