Trespassing on HS Tracks?

In 15 years I've never been hassled for using the local HS track. But I am only there early in the morning or weekends and if there is an organized student activity taking place I steer clear.

The fact that it's apparently a private school pretty much kills any chance you have. At first I thought this was a local public school track, but even then they can block access if they want. My usual HS track is sort of a dump, but it is rubber, so I usually do sprint work there and they do not care who is on it. However, it was closed during a school renovation once, so I had to go to the neighboring town's track which surrounds a sports turf football fielf (very nicely done) and it was locked up. I contacted the athletic director in a very courteous professional manner via email, explaining my purpose and I would only use it once per week and he denied me (although politely) just because it sets a precendent and they are really trying to preserve the quality of their facilities, which I respect.

Your best bet is to find a public HS track and give it a shot...you most likely won't have any issues there.

I've experienced this a lot. Prior to 6 am, I've been told to get off private property at a Catholic school. I just don't run there anymore.

Do not ever attempt, no matter the time of day, to use a private HS track unless you have prior permission from the school. Public school tracks are a different story - use them as long as school isn't in session or any HS teams aren't using the facility. I've never once had a problem doing this. I go late in the evening or very early in the morning. Sunday afternoons are good as well.

If it was a public school, it would be a different story. Where I am, they just built a new track at the high school. They decided to lock the gate promptly at 3:30 every day and kept the gates shut on weekends. Needless to say, the resident property taxpayers showed up with pitchforks and torches and changed some minds about public access.

But, private schools are called private for a reason. In today's hyper sensitive world with school shootings, drugs and so on, you are kind of lucky that they didn't have a school security guard detain you until the cops showed up.

Times are changing, and anyone who works for a high school school these days needs to be vigilant of people who may not "belong" on school grounds being there during the school day. Doesn't matter if you look like a runner and are going through the motions, how is that "old dude" to know you don't have a pistol in your bag? Too many disturbed people have lashed out in a way to get attention and caused decimation.

If it's a track where you've done this before, it could be the school has put new policies in place for some reason. The school I work for has a sports center with 4 basketball/volleyball/tennis courts, an indoor track, a pool, and a weight room. When I started there a decade ago it wasn't unusual to see random people (clearly too young or old to be going to school here) shooting hoops or running on the track or in the weight room when the bulding wasn't really open to the public. Especially Saturday and Sunday mornings you'd wonder who these people were and how they got in, but I never had a problem with it. The last 2-3 years we've begun to have a lot more reported thefts and vandalism so my boss is stressing to all employees that when the building is closed if we see random people inside we need to be calling security. Maybe there are reasons you're not privy to that created this interaction.

The liability concern is very important--regardless of whether its being invoked in this situation was legit or not.

The greedy lawyers (yes, I'm one) and their greedy clients have made this whole topic a minefield. It truly does suck, but when you see some of the awards that juries have given out, you realize that just one good liability case could sink a school (or school district).

when in Rome wrote:

I blame Bush for it, others blame Obama. Either way, it's too bad.

Why?

Because they are child molesters and like to hang around school playgrounds?

If it's a good track they like to put a fence around it and lock things up to keep the vandals and taggers out.

If it's a junk track it's probably because they didn't put a fence around it.

Just read the signs, follow the rules or call and ask what are the rules. Don't be a caveman or think you live in Mayfield with Wally & the Beaver.

This is an issue that even professional athletes have to deal with.

True enough. I

As someone mentioned earlier, though, this private school isn't paying any property taxes. They completed a million dollar-plus project not two years ago, floated along by donations from alumni and locals. Meanwhile, the residential property taxes around here are at an all time high. Seems that there should be some sort of public use agreement for their outdoor facilities, especially if people are going to continuously attempt to use them. Either that, or they should equally enforce their trespassing policies for me, alumni, Old Lady Betty, and pop and his boy playing catch on their fields. If the system is flawed, I'm certainly less inclined to seek the approval of its overseers.

Also, for those saying that a public school would be a different story...a friend of mine got booted from his former high school's track for the same reasons. This school is only about six miles from my house. Seems like this sort of thing depends very much on the neighborhood and the temperaments of the groundsmen.

I run on a private school's track all the time. They probably don't want me on there, but as long as no one else is around I don't see any issue. Just run on it at odd hours and leave if they ask you. I've been asked to leave before, and I do, but that doesn't stop me from coming back. Are they really going to call the police and say "a man is on our track at 6:00 PM!"?

anon coach wrote:

Times are changing, and anyone who works for a high school school these days needs to be vigilant of people who may not "belong" on school grounds being there during the school day. Doesn't matter if you look like a runner and are going through the motions, how is that "old dude" to know you don't have a pistol in your bag? Too many disturbed people have lashed out in a way to get attention and caused decimation.

Would be great if every American had a pistol in their pocket, every American should packing heat as is their Constitutional right. It is when the rest of us disarmed by the worries of the likes of you that the disturbed people can go on killing sprees.

disgruntledmiler wrote:

for those saying that a public school would be a different story...a friend of mine got booted from his former high school's track for the same reasons. This school is only about six miles from my house.

No taxpayer should be denied access to a publicly funded 400m track. Period. In our town it took an override to raise tax money to rebuild the high school track, and one of the override provisions was open access for resident runners and walkers of all ages.

Like others have said, you need to be REASONABLE.

Ask permission, be willing to give them any and all information they may want, and if you show up and there is an organized activity (meet, practice, etc...) you go some where else.

Hopkinton wrote:

No taxpayer should be denied access to a publicly funded 400m track. Period. In our town it took an override to raise tax money to rebuild the high school track, and one of the override provisions was open access for resident runners and walkers of all ages.

I can see both sides of this from the point of view of a taxpayer. There are two reasonable arguments.

1) I paid for this track, so I should get to use it.

2) I paid for this track, so I don't want the public to use it so that it gets torn up and I have to pay to resurface the thing again in 2 years.

I think it really depends on the area. A track in some backwoods suburb won't get much use even if it is open to the public, so there is no reason to keep it closed. A track in a populated area will just get torn apart if you let everyone use it.

I don't think they'd have a problem with the odd pre-arranged group workout.

They may have a problem with an adult hanging out alone on school property.

disgruntledmiler wrote:

True enough. I

As someone mentioned earlier, though, this private school isn't paying any property taxes. They completed a million dollar-plus project not two years ago, floated along by donations from alumni and locals. Meanwhile, the residential property taxes around here are at an all time high. Seems that there should be some sort of public use agreement for their outdoor facilities, especially if people are going to continuously attempt to use them. Either that, or they should equally enforce their trespassing policies for me, alumni, Old Lady Betty, and pop and his boy playing catch on their fields. If the system is flawed, I'm certainly less inclined to seek the approval of its overseers.

....

You don't seem to get it. They aren't paying property taxes BY LAW, not by agreement. Therefore they aren't obligated in a quid pro quo manner to share their private property. In addition, you do realize they are a private school for a reason, so they can make their own policies on how things are done at their school.

As for how they enforce their tresspassing policy, it is entirely up to them, just like it is up to YOU to decide how to enforce tresspassing on your private property. If they want to let old ladies or kids participate but not suspicious lookling adult males with their junk hanging out tiny running shorts, well that's up to them.

Your benefit from them not having a uniform policy is that they can only have you leave, you won't be charged the (usual) $50 for tresspassing fine.

In the end, you screwed up. You went on somebody else's private property without their permission. OK, so you see other people enjoying the facilities and think it's ok for you. That's alright. But the minute you are told to leave, why do you even think you can argue it?

In my neighborhood, there's a public and a Catholic high school track, both used by the public, with no one objecting.

In fact, some years ago when they rebuilt the public school track with a rubberized surface, they openly allowed the public access to the track--i.e. used to be they kept gates closed; now they have them open and don't prevent people from running/walking there unless there's a track meet or football game. (In fact, I seem to remember that they had some kind of welcome event to let people know the track was available to the public--or in some way announced its opening--and they have rules for use and a sign saying you use the track at your own risk, etc.) I've even run there during school hours. If the track is being used for a PE class or track practice, I'll approach the teacher or coach and ask them if they mind if I run there. If they say no, I leave. But they almost always say yes. I know the coach and one or two of the teachers, so that might help--plus, I'm careful to avoid the most traveled lanes.

The Catholic school track is paved, less appealing than the one at the public school, so it's generally my second choice. But it's okay for short runs and closer to home. I definitely won't run on that one during school hours, but will use it some evenings or weekends. There too, many from outside the school use the track with no one objecting. I don't think the school made any announcements about public use either way, but they never chase people off.

In another area where I lived, one Catholic school I called about using the track was a lot less receptive. The person who took the call acted very huffy and said it was private property--but she transferred me to the athletic department where the guy who answered kind of sneered at my being a woman and wanting to train, very condescending. So I decided not to pursue the matter. Yet at a nearby public school, the woman who took my call was quite friendly--"Oh yes, it's fine if you want to run there, if there's not a game--let me check and I'll call you back." And she did call telling me to come on over. I get that the Catholic school in this case was within its rights. But the difference in the way I was treated when I called the two schools really struck me--if this is the vibe that particular Catholic school still puts out, then their staff definitely needs better communication skills. How would they know I wasn't planning to send my kids to that school--and might have decided not to based on the response I got?

...have you ever, you know, "popped a squat" on a track???