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A California father says he simply wanted to spend an afternoon playing tennis with his children — but instead found himself being questioned by park rangers who believed he was illegally teaching lessons without a permit.
Sam Dogen, a San Francisco father of two, told Fox News Digital he was practicing with his 6-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son at Golden Gate Heights Park after returning from a family trip to Hawaii.
“I took the kids out for what I thought would be a nice afternoon… to get over the jet lag, be outside in the sun and go play some tennis like we’ve done many, many times,” Dogen said.
About 20 minutes into their practice session, Dogen said two San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department rangers approached and asked whether he had a permit to teach tennis.
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A San Francisco dad says he was playing tennis with his kids at Golden Gate Heights Park when he was approached by city park rangers. (Yalonda M. James/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images, File)
“I was immediately thinking to myself, ‘What are you talking about? These are my kids,'” he recalled.
According to Dogen, the confusion ended only after one of his children spoke up.
“He’s my daddy,” his son told the rangers, Dogen said.
The family was never cited, but Dogen said one ranger told him the penalty for teaching without a permit could have been $192.
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Sam Dogen speaks with Fox News Digital during a video interview about his encounter with San Francisco park rangers. (Brittany Miller/Fox News Digital)
Dogen emphasized that the encounter ended with what he described as an educational warning, not a citation. Still, he questioned why the interaction happened at all.
“There was nobody waiting,” he said. “It was just a surprise to me. Why even bother trying to disrupt a perfectly nice afternoon, father with his children?”
The Recreation and Parks Department previously told The San Francisco Standard that rangers routinely check whether people providing instruction on public courts are operating commercially, since paid tennis instruction requires a permit.
“This was a routine interaction,” department spokesperson Tamara Aparton told the outlet. “Because paid instruction is not allowed on public courts without a permit, rangers will sometimes ask questions to determine whether someone is providing commercial instruction or simply using the courts for personal recreation or coaching their kids.”
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The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department routinely checks whether people providing instruction on public tennis courts are operating commercially. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images, File)
Dogen said he understands why the city regulates commercial instruction, but added that he believes parents teaching their own children should be treated differently.
“Raising children in a city as expensive as San Francisco is hard enough,” Dogen told Fox News Digital. “When you add law enforcement officers who aren’t friendly, it gets even tougher.”
He said his immediate concern during the interaction was making sure the situation stayed calm with his children standing nearby.
“My only instinct was to de-escalate and keep my six-year-old daughter and nine-year-old son safe,” Dogen said.
Looking ahead, Dogen joked that he may carry documentation with him the next time he takes his children to the public courts.
A family’s game of tennis came under scrutiny by San Francisco park officials. (David Gray/Getty Images, File)
“I’m going to get their birth certificates and carry them with me in my tennis bag just to prove they’re my children,” he said. “I’m not going to get a permit to teach my children.”
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Dogen said he hopes the incident prompts city officials to take a more family-friendly approach to enforcing park rules.
“My hope is that San Francisco becomes a more welcoming place for children and families, not a place where a father teaching his own kids tennis on an empty court gets threatened with a $192 fine,” he said.