A petition is circulating online calling for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to allow the parents of cheerleaders to attend athletic events where the cheerleaders are performing.
Reynolds issued a proclamation in mid-November that restricts attendance at high school-sponsored sporting and extracurricular events.
“The gathering organizer and all spectators must ensure that spectators are limited to no more than two spectators for each student-athlete, performer or competitor participating in the gathering,” the petition quoted the proclamation as saying.
The petition organizer said it seems clear from the language in the proclamation that cheerleaders should be permitted to have two spectators watch them “perform” at games because cheerleaders are sponsored by the school and constitute either a sport, a recreational activity and/or an extracurricular gathering.
“However, the Iowa High School Athletic Association has posted on its website that, ‘For a basketball game, only the basketball athletes can have two spectators. Cheerleaders at a cheerleading competition could have spectator.'”
The petition asks Gov. Reynolds to clarify her proclamation because of the IHSAA’s guidance.
“Cheerleaders should be permitted to have parents there to support them, monitor them, photograph and video them while they ‘perform’ at the ‘gathering,'” the petition says. “It looks like the Governor agrees, but someone at the Governor’s office is giving IHSAA conflicting information, which it is passing along to schools, to the detriment of cheerleaders.”
Gov. Reynolds’ spokesman told The Iowa Standard on Saturday that cheerleaders are not allowed spectators.
You can sign the petition here.
