Akron Public Schools is changing to Saturday morning-only football games for the remainder of the season after police said multiple fights broke out at a Friday night football game last week.
The district said the time change is meant to provide a "safe environment for student athletes, students, families, staff and spectators."
"The district is also reviewing the incident and assessing safety practices for future athletic event," it said in a press release Wednesday.
The change comes after the Akron Police Department responded to a report of "multiple fights" at the Friday evening game between Buchtel and Firestone high schools. The fights occurred inside and outside the stadium at Ellet Community Learning Center, according to the report. While attempting to stop the fighting, a "reserve officer working the game" sprayed one person with pepper spray. Another officer used a taser on different person.
Officers arrested one 36-year-old man, and the report lists a 15-year-old boy as a "suspect."
No coaches or players were involved in the altercations, the district said. Akron school officials said Thursday a mix of current students, parents and some students who do not attend the school district were involved.
Prior to the Oct. 2 incident, the district already had a policy of only allowing students to attend a football game when their schools were participating. If they were not current students, the district required them to be accompanied by an adult with a valid ID.
Superintendent Mary Outley said the district is looking closely at what happened during the Oct. 2 game.
"One of the things that we are really trying to make sure we have enough staff in place for are the security protocols around checking to ensure that there are guardians present with students who do not attend one of the two participating schools," Outley said.
While football season is almost over, basketball season and football playoffs are approaching, she added. Outley said the district is analyzing whether, in general, daylight-only games will increase safety for students and reduce bad behavior among participants.
Fights at high school football games, and district's responses to those incidents, are frequent topics of news headlines in Northeast Ohio and the U.S. A majority of high-school level sports officiants in a 2023 survey said they felt sportsmanship at U.S. high school sporting events was getting worse among attendees, coaches and players.
In 2023, the majority-white Solon school district pulled out of a football game with the majority-Black Euclid school district after incidents of students and spectators fighting at games in Euclid. However, parents in Euclid raised concerns about racial bias influencing Solon's decision in that case.
