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Open letter to the county on the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page:

An Open Letter to our Community Regarding Youth Sports in Humboldt County:

The California Department of Public Health recently issued updated guidance limiting the number of observers for youth sports to one observer per child. Unfortunately, it seems that co-parenting families were not considered when forming this guidance. Mandating a strict rule of only one observer per child forces children to make a choice between which parent is deemed essential to attend an event and ostracizes co-parenting families. Every parent, including step-parents, has the right to attend and watch an event involving their child, and should be able to choose for themselves whether or not their attendance at their child’s sporting event is necessary.

The Sheriff’s Office is not here to dictate what age-appropriate supervision for youth sports looks like and will not be in attendance at these sporting events to monitor parent supervision of their youth athletes.

Throughout this entire pandemic, the Sheriff’s Office has taken an educational approach to COVID-19 precautions, rather than an enforcement approach. We feel that this approach continues to be successful in our county. I encourage anyone attending youth sporting events to continue maintaining social distancing and practicing COVID-19 safety precautions such as wearing a facial covering and staying home if you are feeling sick.

Sincerely,

Sheriff William F. Honsal