SLO roller skating rink locked up after skateboarders harass kids, coaches
The city of San Luis Obispo has closed the roller skating and hockey rink at Santa Rosa Park to drop-in use after skateboarders at the SLO Skate Park repeatedly harassed kids and roller derby coaches at the rink.
Signs were posted on Monday at the Ken Hampian Hockey Rink and Multi-Use Court, alerting users about the change, said Devin Hyfield, the city’s recreation manager.
The skate park and skating rink are located adjacent to each other, but the rink does not permit skateboarding under a city ordinance, Hyfield said.
“All skateboarders are welcome to use the SLO Skate Park,” Hyfield said in an email. “The closure of the hockey rink for drop-in use will be through Aug. 9.”
Use of the rink is now limited to reservations only, and the gates are locked.
SLOCO Junior Roller Derby, a nonprofit roller derby league for children between ages 4 and 17, issued a Facebook post Monday talking about the bullying they’ve faced in recent days.
“Over the past three or more weeks our team, young skaters, coaches and BOD, have been subject to increasing incidence of harassment from young boys and men from the skate park,” the post noted. “It started with throwing grapes and other bits of food at our skaters during practice, to offering drugs and threatening gestures with a taser. Until yesterday when this group of skate boarders tore our posted signs and stormed the rink before we had finished our practice during our reserved rink time.”
The club also said that skaters “yelled and screamed obscenities at our coaches when they were told they could not be on the rink during our practice time, or at all, per posted rules that do not allow skateboards in the rink at all because of how expensive it is to resurface.”
“They called our coaches the N-word, the C-word and even called our skaters who were with us whores,” the Facebook post noted. “They refused to leave our space, and we ended up called the police.”
SLOPD responded to the incident and will continue to patrol, Hyfield said.
“Patrols do occur at multiple points during the day but unfortunately cannot be completely assigned to a specific park or facility,” Hyfield said. “The city has posted at multiple places with our parks system a ‘See Something, Say Something’ sign to encourage the community to report any inappropriate behaviors to the city’s non-emergency dispatch number at 805-781-7312.”
Rollerbladers and others who wish to use the rink for allowable recreation may reserve it by emailing SLO’s Facilities Desk at frec@slocity.org or by calling 805-781-7222.
The city has provided keys to the long term users, and for any one-time use, city staff will open and close the facility.
This story was originally published July 21, 2021 at 6:10 PM.
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