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.”