Pathway for Parents to Serve Schools in Media Role

It’s early morning and your many daily duties as the school’s activities administrator await. A light knock on your office door takes you away from your strategy on how to tackle the lengthy to-do list. The visitor is the parent of a player on the football team who wants a moment of your time.

The reason for the visit isn’t one of the myriad of negative things that are typically thrown at an athletic director. Instead, the parent is seeking permission to serve the school as a media member.

The Rolodex of questions begin silently spinning:

• Will the parent be transparent and flexible in covering all aspects of the team or activity, and not just their child?

• Will the parent follow the expectations of the school and the state association?

• Is the request just an avenue to get into events for free?

• Has the parent been a positive community member who understands education-based activities?

• Where is the information about high school students being posted?

• What are the local policies about students being photographed; is this an extension of your school?

While these concerns are very real, the request might be a pathway to creating something positive, too.

“Media coverage is becoming more and more difficult for local TV and print media to highlight the students,” said Big Lake (Minnesota) activities director Mark Kuisle. “An administrator needs to ask: ‘Is this parent serving in the media role helpful to them’? If so, this avenue may be a helpful tool in promoting your school’s teams or activities.”

The keys here are trust and a clear adherence to expectations.

“We have allowed parents to serve as event photographers only with administrative approval at our home events,” said Shane Backhus, activities director at McPherson (Kansas) High School. “If not approved by the AD, we do not allow individuals on the sidelines, near any playing surface or access to our teams at events.”

Backhus says the positives to this parental access include, but are not limited to, vested interests in the programs, performing the role out of care for the students and the program, and typically, it is a service at no cost. On the flip side, administrators must closely monitor the access and remove individuals who did not get prior approval. He says that is rare, however, as he and his staff make the expectations clear prior to an event.

“Overall, parents that want to provide this (media) service can be very helpful in a time of reduced media coverage for high school programs,” Backhus said. “They can provide images we can use on our social media platforms. We make sure that our student media members and professional media from our community, and visiting communities, always get priority access.”

Parents in a media role can also provide valued service by contributing photos to a local newspaper, the school’s yearbook or newspaper and marketing materials for the school district.

The narrative and pathway to access isn’t quite as smooth at the state association level where parent media meet much tighter restrictions. For years, state association media directors have had to strike a balance between honoring media guidelines and policies while acknowledging that some parents are teachers, yearbook advisors or have another school-district role.

“Parents are part of high school,” said Jeremy Holaday, assistant executive director of the Kansas State High School Activities Association. “Understanding that is harder than it sounds, but it simplifies the process within decision-making, especially with this topic.”

At the postseason level, few, if any, state associations will credential a parent without a defined or authorized media role.

This has become challenging to manage as shrinking newsrooms across the country are needing to tap into parents to serve in media roles to ensure the students, member schools and the community are receiving the promised coverage. When an authorized media organization applies on behalf of the parents to serve as media members, state associations typically permit it but are still on high alert.

But in those cases where parents are hired by authorized media organizations, parents need to be reminded that the content they produce, be it photos or news copy, belongs to the news outlet they represent. A credential can be forfeited for violation of this traditional policy.

The wrestling state tournaments held across the nation are typically the most abused credential by parents posing as media members. State associations report instances where school-affiliated personnel are wearing media credentials, but have no equipment with them, be it a notebook, laptop, camera or tape recorder.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association does not allow parent media at any of its events. Only authorized media outlets receive credentialed access to state events. The AIA, like many state associations, permits member schools that have student media programs credentialed access to state events; however, the caveat is that they are just for team bracketed events in which that member school is competing. Most state associations do not permit student media access to individual state tournaments.

“There are ADs who will just allow whatever parent to take pictures because he or she knows that parent,” said Seth Polansky, the sports information director of the AIA. “This creates a problem at postseason events where the AIA controls the rights and requires a media pass of some sort to get in. These uncredentialed parents come to the front gate expecting to get in because they’ve done it all season.”

While some are apologetic and say they weren’t aware, others will argue with state association personnel.

“The only understanding we attempt to convey is no parents receive media credentials to the state tournaments,” said Todd Clark, longtime communications director of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. “However, in some instances, there can be exceptions to be reasonable. There have been parents that have been credentialed that have been color commentators for radio transmissions. The fact that the parent is in the press box or on the second level radio suite is different from giving them access to the sidelines or mat side. Situations like this are typically worked out ahead of time.”

At the local level, athletic directors can set boundaries to tame expectations of a parent wanting to serve in a media role. It is important to stress that this access is for regular-season coverage only, unless a state association has opportunities available. While media policies and guidelines during the regular season are under local control, member schools and their management teams are increasingly turning to state associations for assistance in mirroring consistent policies.

“This is a workable situation for ADs, whether you are a veteran administrator or one just starting out,” Kuisle said. “It’s all about the students and giving them the coverage they deserve within the proper expectations.”