After these stories ran, the School Board
changed their grad safety procedures.
changed their grad safety procedures.
PARENTS MISS
GRADUATION
GRADUATION
RIVERBEND DAD WHO FLEW FROM IRAQ DENIED ENTRY
Several parents who expected to see their children graduate from Riverbend High School on Saturday were barred from the ceremony, including a father who had flown from Iraq.
“I insisted from the beginning that I would be here June 7 for this purpose,” said Rob DuBois, a liaison officer for A–T Solutions, who has a yearlong contract in Iraq. “We waited all these years.”
DuBois said he and 40 to 50 people with tickets were told by a fire marshal they couldn’t enter the gym because it had reached capacity. He arrived 15 minutes before the 2 p.m. ceremony.
Spotsylvania County Fire Chief Chris Eudailey said two fire marshals were at the event but would not give specifics.
“We’re investigating, trying to ascertain exactly what took place to try to get to the bottom of it,” he said yesterday.
IT WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN
Eudailey plans to meet with School Superintendent Jerry Hill and Riverbend Principal Steve Fitch next week.
The school division is aware of the incident, and those who couldn’t enter the gym were directed to the auditorium, according to a statement issued by school spokeswoman Sara Branner.
The 423 graduates gave roughly 1,600 tickets to family members and friends. Riverbend’s gym holds about 2,300 people.
School officials will make sure parents aren’t turned away again.
“This was the eighth year that I have attended graduation, and I can assure you I have never heard of a person with a ticket being denied into graduation,” Hill said in the statement.
GRADS ARE MAD
“I didn’t want to walk,” said Kayla Bryan, whose parents were denied admittance. “I was mad because I was lucky I even got to graduate.”
Bryan found out her parents would be left out as she went into the gym. She struggled in school and wanted to show her parents she “actually did it,” she said.
Her mother, Wanda Craft, faults poor planning.
“I’m just mortified at what we experienced,” she said yesterday. “She was in there with none of us to cheer her on as she was getting handed that diploma.”
Like DuBois, she was led to the auditorium.
DuBois likened the scene outside the gym area to a mob and a “near riot.” The fire marshal didn’t give a reason for denying entrance until close to 2 p.m., he said.
“If they had just communicated, we could’ve started dealing with the issue earlier,” he said.
DuBois’ son, Gabriel, said he wasn’t aware his father wasn’t in the room until after the ceremony.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime situation. He flew all the way back from Iraq to see it,” he said. “It doesn’t do it justice when you see it on the big screen.”
INADEQUATE SPACE
At a School Board meeting Monday, Hill said the school division does not have adequate space to accommodate those who want to attend graduation ceremonies.
DuBois, who returns to Iraq tomorrow, says he doesn’t want other parents to miss something so important.
“It’s really unfortunate it happened to me,” he said. “I got to watch him basically on a TV screen. My applause rang out on empty halls.”
WAS THERE ROOM
IN THE GYM?
According to Spotsylvania County school officials, if all parents with tickets had been allowed into the gym for Riverbend High School’s graduation last week, there still should have been 75 fewer persons than the posted capacity.
Parents with tickets were turned away from the gym on Saturday and had to watch on a monitor in the auditorium.
Superintendent Jerry Hill said Riverbend Principal Steve Fitch prepared a detailed spreadsheet of who would be in the gym—right down to members of the choir—and they still had room for 75 people.
Without consulting Fitch or staff, an assistant fire marshal told school faculty checking tickets that they could not allow anyone else into the gym, Hill said. The gym has bleacher seating and could have legally fit in all the parents with tickets had they been asked to sit closer together, he said.
Fire Chief Chris Eudailey said yesterday he couldn’t verify the information until he meets with Hill next week.
“To make any comments at this point would be premature because I don’t have all the facts,” he said.
MAKING ROOM
While Eudailey would not comment on the graduation specifically, he said the occupant load for a space is based on 18 inches per person. Someone who takes up more than 18 inches of space decreases the occupant load.
Hill said people who get to graduations early often claim a big area, sometimes to save seats for others. In past ceremonies, principals have asked people to make room, but school officials weren’t given the opportunity to do that Saturday, Hill said.
Hill said he understands parents’ frustrations.
“I’m a parent, and if I’d been kept out of my son or daughter’s graduation, I’d definitely want to get ahold of somebody,” he said. “I would be livid. I would be frustrated, and I am frustrated.”
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
Spotsylvania issues two kinds of graduation tickets—to the gym for parents and to the auditorium for other family and friends to watch on the television monitor.
Though Hill and Fitch said this was the first time people with tickets to the gym were turned away, parents who contacted The Free Lance–Star said this has happened before.
Lamonte Yarborough said he arrived at last year’s ceremony with minutes to spare, and he and other parents were barred from the gym because it had reached capacity.
He was allowed in the room minutes before his daughter walked onstage, after arguing with the people manning the door, he said.
“Things like that shouldn’t happen,” he said. “That’s a milestone not only in that child’s life but in the parent’s life.”
After being turned away at this year’s graduation, Maria Martin said she consulted a lawyer.
She’s not seeking money, she said, but wants someone held responsible for the incident.
Parents who feel the same should contact her, she said.
“There is nothing that is going to make me get that moment back,” she said. “It’s gone, and they had no right to do that to us.”
PLANNING FOR NEXT YEAR
Hill said he wasn’t aware parents had been turned away from the ceremony until after the event was over.
He and Eudailey will discuss what happened and try to develop a plan for the future.
“All I can do is make sure this never happens again,” Hill said yesterday. “We will try to come up with a system that is foolproof.”
Parents with tickets were turned away from the gym on Saturday and had to watch on a monitor in the auditorium.
Superintendent Jerry Hill said Riverbend Principal Steve Fitch prepared a detailed spreadsheet of who would be in the gym—right down to members of the choir—and they still had room for 75 people.
Without consulting Fitch or staff, an assistant fire marshal told school faculty checking tickets that they could not allow anyone else into the gym, Hill said. The gym has bleacher seating and could have legally fit in all the parents with tickets had they been asked to sit closer together, he said.
Fire Chief Chris Eudailey said yesterday he couldn’t verify the information until he meets with Hill next week.
“To make any comments at this point would be premature because I don’t have all the facts,” he said.
MAKING ROOM
While Eudailey would not comment on the graduation specifically, he said the occupant load for a space is based on 18 inches per person. Someone who takes up more than 18 inches of space decreases the occupant load.
Hill said people who get to graduations early often claim a big area, sometimes to save seats for others. In past ceremonies, principals have asked people to make room, but school officials weren’t given the opportunity to do that Saturday, Hill said.
Hill said he understands parents’ frustrations.
“I’m a parent, and if I’d been kept out of my son or daughter’s graduation, I’d definitely want to get ahold of somebody,” he said. “I would be livid. I would be frustrated, and I am frustrated.”
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
Spotsylvania issues two kinds of graduation tickets—to the gym for parents and to the auditorium for other family and friends to watch on the television monitor.
Though Hill and Fitch said this was the first time people with tickets to the gym were turned away, parents who contacted The Free Lance–Star said this has happened before.
Lamonte Yarborough said he arrived at last year’s ceremony with minutes to spare, and he and other parents were barred from the gym because it had reached capacity.
He was allowed in the room minutes before his daughter walked onstage, after arguing with the people manning the door, he said.
“Things like that shouldn’t happen,” he said. “That’s a milestone not only in that child’s life but in the parent’s life.”
After being turned away at this year’s graduation, Maria Martin said she consulted a lawyer.
She’s not seeking money, she said, but wants someone held responsible for the incident.
Parents who feel the same should contact her, she said.
“There is nothing that is going to make me get that moment back,” she said. “It’s gone, and they had no right to do that to us.”
PLANNING FOR NEXT YEAR
Hill said he wasn’t aware parents had been turned away from the ceremony until after the event was over.
He and Eudailey will discuss what happened and try to develop a plan for the future.
“All I can do is make sure this never happens again,” Hill said yesterday. “We will try to come up with a system that is foolproof.”
Riverbend Principal Steve Fitch prepared
a spreadsheet to ensure the school’s gym
would not be over capacity at graduation.
2,326
posted capacity
423
graduates
1,692
parents with tickets
72
faculty
20
people on stage
20
band
12
choir
12
attendants
2,251
total
75
number below posted capacity
Editor Laura L. Hutchison contributed to this report by gathering the numbers for the chart.
OFFICIALS TRY
TO AVOID
RIVERBEND
REPEAT
SUPERINTENDENT, FIRE CHIEF WANT TO AVOID GRADUATION ISSUES
Spotsylvania County school and fire officials are looking at ways to prevent a repeat of Riverbend High School’s graduation earlier this month, at which parents with tickets were barred from entering the gym.
“We need to have that communication happening days before the graduation,” school Superintendent Jerry Hill said after meeting with Fire Chief Chris Eudailey on Wednesday.
He and Eudailey agreed to create a flow chart of seating arrangements and to review the number of tickets issued before the ceremony. Hill said he recently toured the
Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center, but isn’t certain whether schools will use it for graduation ceremonies next year.
On June 7, dozens of parents who arrived minutes before the ceremony were told they couldn’t enter the gym because it had reached capacity. They were instructed to go to the auditorium to watch a video feed of the ceremony.
Hill said there should have been room for all parents with tickets, but a fire marshal at the event refused to admit parents and did not consult Principal Steve Fitch or school staff.
Normally school workers close the doors once the ceremony begins.
Eudailey would not identify the fire marshal or elaborate on the day’s events. He said only that for future events, a fire marshal will arrive at the event an hour early and walk through the building with the principal.
“There were things both sides could’ve done differently,” he said yesterday.
It is unclear whether the fire marshal was disciplined.
Fire marshals usually are present at graduations, but before this year no procedure existed for incidents of this nature.
Principal Fitch created a spreadsheet of everyone who would be in the gym, down to choir members. Tickets were monitored carefully at the door, Hill said, and would have been difficult to counterfeit.
The county is still piecing together what happened that day, he said.
“That’s the unfortunate thing here that has occurred,” Hill said. “We are not able to give back a graduation that was taken away from parents.”
“We need to have that communication happening days before the graduation,” school Superintendent Jerry Hill said after meeting with Fire Chief Chris Eudailey on Wednesday.
He and Eudailey agreed to create a flow chart of seating arrangements and to review the number of tickets issued before the ceremony. Hill said he recently toured the
Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center, but isn’t certain whether schools will use it for graduation ceremonies next year.
On June 7, dozens of parents who arrived minutes before the ceremony were told they couldn’t enter the gym because it had reached capacity. They were instructed to go to the auditorium to watch a video feed of the ceremony.
Hill said there should have been room for all parents with tickets, but a fire marshal at the event refused to admit parents and did not consult Principal Steve Fitch or school staff.
Normally school workers close the doors once the ceremony begins.
Eudailey would not identify the fire marshal or elaborate on the day’s events. He said only that for future events, a fire marshal will arrive at the event an hour early and walk through the building with the principal.
“There were things both sides could’ve done differently,” he said yesterday.
It is unclear whether the fire marshal was disciplined.
Fire marshals usually are present at graduations, but before this year no procedure existed for incidents of this nature.
Principal Fitch created a spreadsheet of everyone who would be in the gym, down to choir members. Tickets were monitored carefully at the door, Hill said, and would have been difficult to counterfeit.
The county is still piecing together what happened that day, he said.
“That’s the unfortunate thing here that has occurred,” Hill said. “We are not able to give back a graduation that was taken away from parents.”
SPOTSY OFFICIALS
OFFER UP APOLOGY
DECISIONS THAT KEPT PARENTS FROM RIVERBEND GRADUATION REGRETTED
School and county officials have issued apologies nearly a month after the Riverbend High School graduation that barred parents with tickets from the ceremony.
Spotsylvania County School Board members and Superintendent Jerry Hill addressed two parents who spoke at Monday night’s meeting.
“My heart goes out to you,” said board member Ray Lora. “You don’t deserve what has happened to you.”
Board members Amanda Blalock and James Gillespie echoed Lora’s remarks.
Moments before, Maria Martin told the board, “If I do something wrong, I apologize and try to make up for what I did. What is being done for this mess?”
In a press release issued last week, County Administrator Randy Wheeler said county staff did not appropriately address overcrowding concerns at the event.
“I’m acknowledging the fact that what happened was truly regrettable, that we had some role in that, and I take responsibility for that, and I’m sorry,” Wheeler said in a recent interview.
He declined to name the assistant fire marshal Hill has said closed the doors without consulting school officials. The county is still looking into the matter in an investigation that’s expected to conclude this week, Wheeler said.
According to the press release, Fire Chief Chris Eudailey and Fire, Rescue and
Emergency Management staff plan to meet this summer with all five high-school principals to discuss next year’s ceremonies.
Two weeks before graduation next year, fire personnel will meet with school administrators to go over the seating plan and review capacity. At least one hour prior to the event, county staff will walk through the building with school personnel.
