Aiming to enhance safety, DCPS moves up high school football games

Jacksonville, FL — Varsity football games for the upcoming season will be scheduled almost exclusively for 6PM, according to the Duval County Public School District.

DCPS says most games will be 6PM Friday, and the ones scheduled for other nights will be at 6PM as well. There are three games scheduled for Saturday, and those will remain as planned. Traditionally, varsity football games are at 7PM.

The District says this change reflects discussion on how to “enhance the safety of our football games for our students and our community”.

Some games were re-scheduled last fall to earlier times on Thursday or Friday, or Saturday mornings, in the aftermath of a triple shooting after the Raines-Lee High School football game in August, where one person was killed. Just last month, there was a shooting outside of the Terry Parker-Ribault High School football game, which critically injured a teen. Arrests have been made in both of those cases.

Amid this schedule change, DCPS says they continue to discuss other proactive safety measures as well.