Kiara Nichelle Thomas Mississippi woman wearing mother of the year shirt assaults kid’s softball umpire as Kristie Moore explains of the dangers.
A Mississippi woman wearing a ‘Mother of the Year’ shirt allegedly cornered a softball umpire and punched her in the face after being ejected from her daughter’s game for yelling profanities.
Kiara Nichelle Thomas, 32, attended the game between 12-year-olds in Laurel on Saturday night when she hurled foul language against the umpires, including Kristie Moore, WLBT reported.
The 10-year veteran umpire had the irate mom removed from the game, only for the woman to allegedly stick around, ambushing the official in the parking lot and assaulting her.
Thomas was charged with simple assault, with her mug shot showing her still wearing the ‘Mother of the Year’ shirt. Naturally.
The simple assault charge is the only applicable charge since no serious medical attention was needed and no weapons were used.
Umpires at the mercy of parents
Moore — who was filling in for another umpire — posted a photo of herself with a black eye on Facebook.
‘Ssoooo, this is embarrassing if I’m going to be open and honest about it. But, it’s real life and it’s unfortunate that it has gotten to this place,’ she wrote.
‘The next time you go to a tournament and you only have one umpire on the field…this is why. When you have brand new umpires on the field that may not know everything they should know yet…..this is why,’ Moore wrote.
‘When you don’t feel you have the quality of umpires you should….this is why. When the day comes that your kid can’t play a ballgame because there are no longer officials to call it….THIS.IS.WHY,’ she continued.
‘Before you post the next ‘funny’ meme about umpires that suck, or are blind, or have missed calls on their phone or whatever it is, before you post about how an umpire was so awful and terrible and lost the game for you…….why don’t you sign up? Get on out there and give it a go,’ Moore said.
‘I got punched coming off a field last night. There is no excuse for this. If you think this is ok, please remove yourself from my friend list. Umpires are not perfect. We never will be. But guess what? No one is,’ she added.
Moore told WLBT that the abuse umpires face is ‘ridiculous.’
The dangers of being a kid’s umpire are very real
‘And even now, the physical abuse now, at this point, and enough is enough,’ she said.
‘I also staff every USFA tournament in the state of Mississippi with umpires and it gets harder and harder to staff these tournaments because no one wants to listen to the verbal abuse and run the risk of what happened to me happening to them,’ Moore told the outlet.
Thomas will reportedly be banned from all recreational facilities in Laurel.
She also faces a fine of $422 and possible jail time, the Washington Examiner reported.
‘It is just a misdemeanor, but we want people to feel safe,’ Laurel Police Chief Tommy Cox told the Examiner.
The state Legislature sought to classify assaults against umpires and referees as a felony aggravated assault, but the bill later died.
