Since the September 1st game, TTSD has been communicating the football game policy for spectators: Students and spectators are not allowed to bring in large bags, as well as water bottles. And ever since the enforcement of this policy, many students have been inconvenienced.

The policy seems rather new, as students generally never had many problems when it came to bags before, but it’s been around for much longer than we thought.

“This rule has actually been in place for years,” principal Brian Bailey said. “It just hasn’t been enforced very long and it hasn’t been enforced consistently at schools in our league and in our district, so the reintroduction of this at Tigard High School this year is just consistent implementation of the rule that’s always been in place.”

The policy was originally created to prevent the presence of drugs, alcohol, and weapons at games. The entire premise of this rule is to keep students safe and yet one question comes to mind: is it fully carrying out its duty? What about the students who need to bring medications such as insulin or epipens? How are they supposed to bring these things along with them to the game? According to Athletic Director Ryan Taylor, only large bags are banned for this very reason.

“Anything that is about a backpack size, so it could be a large purse, it could be a backpack, something like that, if you got a couple of your personal items, cause there are students that have some personal items that they need to bring with them, that would be in something a little bit smaller,” Taylor stated. 

So bags around a backpack size, large purse size, or larger are prohibited, but anything smaller than that is allowed, according to Taylor.

“For [medical] exceptions, we would ask for them to be upfront and let us know why it’s necessary for them to have it,” Taylor continued. “Now, that being said, in most cases the things that students would need medically are things that would fit in a much smaller bag than your backpack.”

So students should just be able to show security that they are bringing in a bag of necessary medical supplies and be allowed to be let in, right? Well, senior Grace Schroeder had a different experience at the “Red White and Blue Out” football game. 

“I was babysitting a seven year old girl who has diabetes and she needed her insulin brought in and she had a whole medical bag of supplies but she wanted to go see her family, hang out at the game. So we went over,  [and] we were approached at the gate with a security guard who said ‘No bags allowed on campus’,” Schroeder said. “I explained the situation, how it was essentially a medical emergency and the severity that if she had an episode that she would need insulin.”

According to Taylor and Bailey, security would have then let Schroeder and the young girl in, correct? 

 “The security guard looked through the bag and still turned us away and would not let us in unless we didn’t have our bags,” Schroeder stated. “So because she really can’t go anywhere without it we had to leave the game and not enjoy the festivities of the night because of this policy.”

While this is just one case, here at The Paw we wonder if this is the only time this has occurred this year (so far). 

When asked about it, Bailey said regarding the situation that, “I don’t know if that’s totally accurate information, and it depends maybe a little bit about how they’re approaching that, but have any of those students that come to you with concerns come talk to me.”

While I appreciate the goals behind the policy, I feel the execution has caused more problems. No matter what has happened, students have been denied access to their medications, even though there is a rule in place providing them a way to bring them in with them. And, to top it all off, students are now being denied water and yet are expected to pay for it once inside the game. What about the students who only brought enough money for a ticket? What about the students who can’t afford the price of concessions? If the school wants to carry out terms that limit the number of bags coming in, they should have clear exceptions to students who need them that everyone is aware of. But what we do know is this: students are permitted bags around the size of a small clutch purse. So next time you attend a TTSD event and need to bring along necessary supplies, bring them in just that. And if you are denied entry, let them know of this rule. Either that or go to Brian Bailey because he’ll be able to help you out.