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Central District Health warns youth sport attendees to comply with COVID-19 safety protocols

After visiting a Friday Night Flag game in Boise, CDH took notice of the lack of COVID-19 safety protocols and asked attendees to remember those best practices.

BOISE, Idaho — During a routine inspection of a mobile food truck on Tree City Church's property on April 2, Central District Health (CDH) noticed numerous Friday Night Flag attendees were not wearing masks or social distancing. As a result, they are reminding spectators of the importance of keeping their guard up against COVID-19.

CDH health inspectors are required to perform routine inspections of mobile food trucks on the church's property, which is why the inspector was present at the flag football game on April 2. When said inspector noticed the lack of COVID-19 protocol compliance, they notified the owner of what they saw.

CDH sent a statement to KTVB that read in part:

The overall nature of our health inspectors’ work is to educate and offer guidance for the health and safety of our communities – and given the ongoing threat of covid-19, they took the time to share their observation.

Trevor Huish, the owner of Friday Night Flag, took the health district's advice to heart and sent an email to parents asking them to practice safety protocols during games.

“We just sent a note out to our parents asking them if they can do better just to make sure we have a season,” Huish said. “A lot of businesses get put in a tough position and they don’t want to be political one way or the other just trying to do our best to keep our customers happy.”

The health district took note of Huish’s effort and addressed them in a statement:

We appreciate that Friday Night Flag organizers have taken the time to remind families of the continued importance of COVID-safe measures like limiting group size, masking, and physical distancing.

Parents admit that there is a mix of people who wear masks and people who don’t.

“There are some people that do want to wear the masks and it gets easily forgotten,” said Dominique Alston, a parent. “People are sick of it and, you know, I am too, but I’m going to continue to do what I need to do if it brings some normalcy for my son.”

Some parents, however, don’t see anything wrong with the way things were before the health district's warning.

“We are over here social distancing alone, I think we are just fine,” said Jessica Fuller, a parent of two in the league. “Those that are at risk maybe stay home, do your groceries online, maybe watch through Zoom, those kinds of things to keep yourself safe. We shouldn’t have to pay for that or you know the few shouldn't have to pay for the many or the many for the few, vice versa.”

If it came down to masks being the only thing that keeps the season going, Fuller would mask up for her kids.

“Eventually we kind of have to stand up for what we believe in and what we think is right, and I’m kind of done wearing masks,” she said. “ I grew up here and I want my kids to have the same experience that I had in a free country.”

The flag football season does not end until May 14, but Huish is confident that as long as parents mask up when they cannot social distance, they won’t be forced to shut down before then.

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