On March 1st an incident occurred at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas. The incident involved a parent altercation at the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) cheerleading competition, which was being held in the convention center. There were many kids of all ages there to compete. 10 people were injured during the evacuation of the center over a suspected shooter. All the injuries were non-life threatening but there were some as severe as broken bones. This event gained a lot of media speculation but there are many different versions of the story.
Two freshmen at Fauquier High School (FHS), Aubrey Gordan and Morgan Schaffer, were in attendance. “While I was in warm-ups, my coaches got a call about there being a shooter in the building. My coaches told me to just take my team and run as far as I could.” Shaffer attested to being filled with fear and panic, stating, “I wasn’t honestly crying. I just felt more terrified that I didn’t know what was going on. I felt like I was being chased by the person. You just had the feeling to run as far as you could…I ran… down through an emergency exit, through two parking lots, and along the highway.” Gordon added to this by sharing her experience: “I was with my dad to go into warm-ups with my team. We’re in the Uber, and everyone starts running outside. So we were confused. And people said shots were fired. And they’re screaming. So everyone came flooding down the stairs and the police said ‘Run.’”
Schaffer recalled other problems happening prior to the evacuation, “There were three fights that day… but police officers said there were never shots fired inside of there.” Schaffer believes that there was more to the story though. “They’re just bending the words a lot because my sister’s a cop, my dad’s a firefighter, my dad’s ex-military and they all know what they heard or at least think they know what they heard. My teammate’s mom was also right there and she was standing behind an undercover cop while the undercover cop was screaming for the guy to put his gun down.” The experience was terrifying and caused worries about the future of cheer competitions.
Gordon believes this will affect future competitions, she stated, “Because Varsity is the brand that hosts the competitions, and they’re off they’re gonna have much more security now. Which they should have had in the first place.” Senior varsity cheerleaders Brooke Armistead and Ashleigh Prudhum said, “Honestly, I’ve never thought of security being a big thing that’s needed at a cheer competition. I never thought it would be that serious. But now that that has happened, I think they do need to figure out something. Maybe some kind of metal detectors or more security, checking bags or what’s on someone.”
The Varsity Cheer Team released a letter to all athletes affected by the incident. The letter states that they will help provide resources and support to all those affected. They also state the new precautions they will be using, such as Increased Police Presence, Weapon Detection Technology and Clear Bag Policy.
This was a traumatic incident that had an effect on many young athletes. This will hopefully cause all sporting events to take new precautions. Unfortunately, this incident happened but hopefully, something like this won’t happen again for a long time.
