Photographer Who Covered High School Football Team for Free for 28 Years Suddenly Banned

A photographer who has covered a Los Angeles high school football team for free the past 28 years says she was abruptly told she could no longer take photos, despite meeting all the required qualifications.

Photographer Judy Collins has been capturing images of football games at Van Nuys High Schoo — a public high school in the Van Nuys district of Los Angeles that belongs to the Los Angeles Unified School District — for almost three decades. Collins, a grandmother whose two sons graduated from Van Nuys High School, has been providing these images for families free of charge.

However, according to a report by the LA Times, Collins was informed on Friday that she could no longer take photographs at Van Nuys High School despite completing an extension application that complied with Los Angeles Unified School District volunteer policies.

Collins says she had never had issues taking photos at Van Nuys High School since she started until this year. LA Times reports that football coach Ken Osorio became concerned after noticing that Collins had been told to leave her usual photography position earlier this season. He and the school’s athletic director Dion Coley invited her to apply for a voluntary coaching position to address any concerns about her presence on the football sidelines.

Collins paid $80 for a CPR course and another $20 for a tuberculosis screening. She was also fingerprinted and underwent a background check. She had initially been told she would need to pay several hundred dollars for a vendor’s license, despite giving her photographs away for free. The group decided that becoming a volunteer coach would be a quicker way to meet Los Angeles Unified School District requirements.

After completing the paperwork, Collins was told she needed to meet with Martin Tate, the assistant principal in charge of athletics. She says she tried several times to contact him by phone and in person at games but was unable to reach him. But when Collins arrived at the team’s game on Friday and began taking photographs, Tate confronted her and told her to leave the field.

When Collins asked why, he allegedly told her, “I’m just following the principal’s order.” Collins pointed out that the principal was on administrative leave, but Tate did not change his instruction. Los Angeles Unified School District’s communication office did not respond to a request for comment from the LA Times.

The news outlet says that Collins has since completed her volunteer coach application and begun photographing games for Panorama High while awaiting permission to return to Van Nuys. She has since obtained the official stamp required to complete her tuberculosis screening, which should allow her to become an officially registered volunteer coach.

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Image creditsHeader photo licensed via Depositphotos.