Vermilion Parish School System to continue sports, activities despite La. health department’s guidance

(The Advocate Newspaper contributed to this story)

The Vermilion Parish school system has no plans to stop students from participating in extracurricular activities, even though the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) recommended suspending extracurricular activities because of the rise of COVID-19 Omicron variant cases.
In other words, the LDH is recommending students stop doing activities such as P.E., band, speech, and after-school activities such as athletics.
Vermilion Parish has no plans to change or stop extracurricular activities.
“We do not have many changes,” said Superintendent Tommy Byler. “We are suggesting everyone wear masks and space out. We are following the LHSAA (Louisiana High School Athletic Association) guidelines, which is our school board policy.”
On Dec. 30, LHSAA executive director Eddie Bonine sent a memo to member schools and other groups involved with LHSAA sports, stating the LHSAA will allow local education systems to make their own decisions on the status of their sports seasons.
If a school system opts to suspend its high school sports based on advice from local health officials, any games missed will be listed as canceled, no power points will be awarded, and no games can be rescheduled or added before Jan. 29.
In addition, if a local school system chooses to suspend its sports program because of the omicron variant, that suspension will remain in place until the governor or the Louisiana Department of Health recommends that sports/extracurricular activities can resume.
However, teams that continue to play, but are forced to miss games because of COVID-related issues, will forfeit those games under the guidelines used this fall for football and volleyball, according to the LHSAA.
Thus far, only one Vermilion Parish basketball game has had to be rescheduled because of COVID.
While Vermilion Parish has not made any changes in extracurricular activities, Lafayette Parish School System has implemented a few changes.
Lafayette Parish will limit the crowd size and is requiring tickets to be purchased online or via an app to prevent cash exchange, and it has been suggested that boys’ and girls’ teams travel separately to allow for social distancing on buses.
Vermilion Parish has no plans to make teams travel separately. However, masks must be worn on the school bus.
According to the Advocate newspaper, the Diocese’s updated protocols to state that individuals who had close contact with an infected person may not participate in extracurricular or co-curricular activities due to a higher risk of spreading the virus.
That includes sports teams, P.E. classes, music instruction and/or field trips. Individuals also cannot participate in any activity that cannot maintain a 6-foot physical distancing until 10 days from contact. After 10 days, students and staff members in quarantine may resume all activities provided by the school. According to the Diocese, all school activities, including field trips and overnight travel, can be held if current CDC and LDH guidelines are followed.