JENNINGS, Mo. – Across the St. Louis metro area, many high schoolers are gearing up for homecoming. But this past weekend, students at Jennings High School were locked out of the dance after not arriving on time.
The students say they’re left with a bad memory of a once-in-a-lifetime night, but the district says they didn’t follow the rules. School officials say the new rules were put in place to make sure students and staff would feel safe.
Missouri State Representative Yolanda Fountain Henderson (District 85), who serves on the Jennings Senior School Board, says dozens of students were denied entry to the homecoming dance after arriving just minutes past the 8 p.m. admission deadline.
The news of the lock out spread like wildfire on social media.
“The students had to pre-order the tickets. They had to pay for them in advance because my son was one of the students. … We had it on there: ‘8 o’clock the doors are locked.’ They’d been broadcasting through the whole week that at 8 o’clock the doors would lock,” Henderson said. “It’s locked for safety, because we have students that come up to Jennings to be hanging around, and we want to make sure our students are safe.”
School officials say students and parents were given enough notice about the deadline and it was stated on the printed tickets that the homecoming dance, would start at 7 p.m. and end by 10 p.m., with no entry after 8 p.m.
More than 30 students were reportedly turned away. Students had to pay $30 in advance for tickets and some were upset about the 8 p.m. cut-off time.
“Some were outside taking pictures on the outside and some of them had five minutes to hurry and get up in there before 8 o’clock, but they just kept taking pictures,” Henderson said. “They were warned. We have to think about safety. That is our number one goal: safety for our students.”
Bridget Perkins, a Jennings High School alum, is saddened the students missed out on their dance.
“…I think that you should be able to show up at any time,” she said. “However, I do think or I would lean to the school district or the school making the rule for a reason, that they had a justifiable reason, and so you have to abide by it that.”
Henderson says her son is a senior at the school and made sure he arrived on time. She’s hopeful that for future events others will do the same so they don’t miss out on the memories.
“The memories are gone, I’m sorry,” Henderson said. “We have prom coming up, and we might have a dance coming up here and there, but I’m sorry; the rules are the rules. We want parents to take this serious.”
