BIll ups the penalty for abusive fans

No chest-butting the referee. A bill which would raise the penalties for Iowans who assault an athletic official during or after a game has cleared an initial hurdle at the capital. Rick Wulkow, assistant executive director of the Iowa Boys High School Athletic Association, says there’s a growing number of spectator/ref confrontations.Wulkow says officials face crowds of up to two-thousand people on any given night in a high school gym, and fans have grown more brazen.The bill would classify an assault on an athletic official as a serious misdemeanor, which bring a fine of up to one-thousand dollars and up to a year in jail. It’s currently a simple misdemeanor. Wulkow says he doesn’t know how many gym floor skuffles there have been in the past year.Wulkow says a referee has been put in charge of the game — and should be respected.The House Judiciary Committee has approved the bill. It must clear the House and the Senate before it becomes law.