Houston mom caught targeting 12-year-old player following tackle of her son
HOUSTON -- A Youth Football and Cheerleading Federation parent is in hot water, accused of chasing after a 12-year-old during a little league football game this past weekend and threatening to slap the child.
Witnesses say the woman was upset the 12-year-old tackled her child.
The 12-year-old's mother filed a police report about the situation.
While the woman never touched the child, the victim's mom says it's upsetting someone was threatening her son over what should've been a fun game.
Houston police confirm they are looking into it.
It was the first game of the season for the Southside Ravens, and they were up against the Northwest Gorillas. The game was cut short after just a few minutes of starting because of a parent chasing after a player for tackling her son.
An incident report by the Youth Football and Cheerleading Federation league uncovers the parent in question was found in violation of multiple code of conduct policies.
The YFF calls the woman a substantial threat to the environment.
Along with the incident report, the YFF president, Edward Hart, sent this statement to ABC13:
"This was an incident that could have ended much worse than it did. A parent running onto the game field after an opposing team player can have a counter-effect of the child's parent(s) responding in kind in defense of their own child, not to mention potential reactions of the staff members of both teams. Fortunately, the staff of both teams were able to get things under control and did not allow the incident to escalate. An assigned on-site police officer further de-escalated things by escorting the offending party out of the facility. This particular facility does not afford itself to our standard access control policies since it is basically an open field with multiple entry points, and has no barriers between spectators and the game field."
Hart says the woman has been banned from all YFF events and activities permanently, and so have the rest of her family and children.
The woman will need to pay a $200 fine and so will her son's former team, the Northwest Gorillas, who were fined $500, accused of not controlling the sideline.
While we weren't able to get a hold of the woman in question, the Northwest Gorillas made a statement on social media apologizing.
"First and foremost we would like to apologize to the parents of the young man that was unnecessarily chased across the field by a parent that was a part of our organization. In no way shape or form is that okay nor is it tolerated. We have since removed both parent and children from NWG as we don't stand with putting nobody's child in harms way.
Yesterday, was a highly emotional day as our parents felt their children were not safe due to the level of aggression displayed by players and opposing parents. To the families apart of our village we apologize for placing you guys in unsafe conditions. We all know that little league football has long since steered from its sole purpose of being about the kids. However, our goal was to bring that back and after yesterday I feel as though we did not show that. As we try our best to do our part to ensure that we provide a safe, fun and family oriented environment for the children. Although we can not control anyone else's actions/emotions we want to take accountability for our behavior as an whole, what part it played and how it was displayed at yesterday's event. Despite the behavior that was displayed by the opponent team, there was no reason that it escalated to that degree or manner. We are sincerely regretful on how this has affected everyone in and outside of our organization. We appreciate all of our dedicated parents who are continuously riding for us."
The family of the player chased says no one has personally apologized to her or her family. The child's mother tells ABC13 she's glad the YFF took action to keep the children safe. She says the priority is the kids' safety and allowing them to have fun, because at the end of the day, that's what they're supposed to be doing in little league football.
