For most middle-class families the $4-6 price range to get into a high school football game might not be a problem. However, many high school students cannot afford to spend their money to watch their school team play.

Admission prices for athletic events above all else should not limit certain students from attending sporting events because of their economic situation.

Just like free and reduced lunches allow students to eat regardless of whether they can pay or not, ticket prices need to give leeway to those who are not able to pay the full price for admission.

Officials at Park’s fellow conference competitor Richfield are currently discussing a solution to this problem. The idea: with a student identification card, students can get into the sporting event at little or no charge.

This concept has already gone into effect at Shakopee High School, whose demographics are much like Park’s, but overall a much larger school that gives up its potential ticket revenue to allow the entire student body entry to watch their high school teams play.

According to Startribune, in the past ten years the number of students receiving free lunches has more than doubled in suburban schools. This statistic should be further realized at sporting events, where many students cannot attend a sporting event because of the price for a ticket.

Even at Parks Homecoming football game, only around 300 students were in attendance, meaning only one quarter of the school was at the largest sporting event of the year.  Yet no one realizes that the attendance at the largest sport event of the year could be much bigger.

As of Nov. 10, 32 percent of students at Park eat lunch on the free/reduced price, there needs to be a change in how prices for sporting events if Park wants to engage the entire student body in school events.

Sure, there might be an issue with revenue as allowing free entry into games could potentially mean hundreds maybe thousands of dollars of revenue loss.  But if it means that the entire school community can enjoy sports together, than the school or sports teams should make amends to make up for potential revenue loss.

Furthermore, St. Louis Park is ranked in the top 100 best communities to live in according to several sources. This is not just because of our school districts numerous awards, or the wide promotion of health in the city, or the various city initiatives for kids and teens can succeed, but because there exists a sense of togetherness in St. Louis Park that other cities don’t share.

But, why can’t the whole school community be together when it comes to enjoying high school sports? The answer is it should.

If Park wants to continue to be recognized around the state as a leader in education, health, and youth development, we must continue to expand the community by giving everyone equal opportunities to be part of the community.

And as much as people don’t want to believe it, economic status has a grand effect on social patterns, and the community.

But even though we are not able to break financial differences in our school, it is possible that students can be treated equally at high school sports events.