This will affect players, coaches, and spectators. Yes, that does include you parents.

Check Out the New "Three Strikes and Your Out" Rule

Obviously we have seen horrible circumstances of refs being abused during sporting events. Of course, we have the extreme circumstances of refs actually being assaulted just for calling a high school game. Incident for example below for Edinburg, Texas from a few years ago.

Texas High School Athlete Tackles Referee

New Rule, If Anyone Is Ejected from a Game It Will Be a Strike on Your Record

TASO or Texas Association of Sports Officials officially released a statement on their new rule. Here is how it will work. At any point during a school year, if in any and all sports, an individual school receives:

• (A) three (3) submitted Incident Reports, indicating excessive verbal abuse and/or
  physical abuse, including threats of physical abuse, directed toward the officials by
  any combination of players, coaches (of that game/match), or spectators:
  OR
• (B) one (1) submitted Incident Report, indicating excessive verbal abuse and/or physical
  abuse, including threats of physical abuse, directed towards the officials, by a game
  administrator, coach (not coaching in the game/match), athletic director,
  superintendent, school board member or other school employee.

I want to stress that yes, if a parent gets thrown out of a game from the stands for heckling a referee. This will go against your child's team. We all know that one parent at every sporting event that takes things a little too far. Hopefully they don't end up ruining the game for these kids with the new rule.

What Happens After Three Strikes?

1. The Chair of the Presidents Council will notify the TASO Executive Director, or
his/her designee, of the Council’s determination.

2. The TASO Executive Director or his/her designee will notify the school’s athletic
director and/or superintendent requesting that the school respond with a
detailed plan to control the unruly conduct of their players, coaches, or
spectators within seven (7) days from the date of the notice.

3. The Presidents Council will review the school’s response and determine:
▪ If the school’s plan will adequately address the issues, the TASO Executive
Director or his/her designee will so advise the school and continue to
monitor for additional IRs.
▪ If the schools plan is not sufficient to control the unruly behavior or the
school fails to respond, the TASO Executive Director, or his/her designee,
will so advise the school and include recommended revision.

After All of That, if Things Don't Change, No Referees for Sporting Events

For schools that ignore or fail to effectively address their negative culture of abuse, a notification will be sent indicating that effective on a certain date there will be no TASO officials, in any sport, assigned to home games for that school until the issues are satisfactorily addressed

You can check out the full statement from the TASO website here. This apparently has been in effect starting this school year, but parents became aware of it after some schools were warned about it during the high school football playoffs the past couple of weeks. Hopefully everyone realizes it's just a game. These referees for high school should be able to call the game and go home safely afterward.