At the start of each new school year, high school students look forward to football games underneath the Friday night lights. At ACHS, the experience is no different. 

However, overcrowding paired with unorganized and inconsistent security measures upon entry to the Parker-Gray Stadium, have left many students confused and overwhelmed. 

Students, parents and other fans have complained about the congested and time-consuming entry process. Nineteen ninety-five graduate and parent of a current student at ACHS Jene Lewis said that the surge of fans at the stadium entrance creates a bottleneck effect and potential for danger. 

“The lack of having another entry and exit, and not enough space for people to come in and out, is a fire hazard in itself,” said Lewis. “If an emergency were to happen and everyone needed to be cleared from the bleachers, that would be a disaster.”

Fans’ frustrations culminated when administrators and security guards began to pat down students upon entry to the stadium at the Pink Out home game on Oct. 10. This not only increased waiting time, but it also made many students uncomfortable. 

“When I realized that there were pat-downs I was really shocked, because I didn’t know that the school was allowed to do that,” said junior Samantha Whitehead. “It definitely felt uncomfortable and unwarranted.”

This procedure had never been implemented at any ACHS football games this school year, and the school did not inform students of them prior to the game.  

“I did not know [the pat-downs] would be happening beforehand,” said junior Max Profusek. “I thought it was kind of overstepping it, because they already had us walk through metal detectors and show our tickets twice.”

According to Executive Director of Athletics and Student Activities James Parker, the security team has weekly meetings before each game, and pat-downs were not discussed between the administration team and the Department of Safety and Security at any of them.

“It wasn’t a decision that was made at any of our meetings or anything like that,” said Parker. “It wasn’t at least discussed with our department or with the admin team.”

Parker believes that a security guard may have started patting students down, and other administrators and guards followed their lead. 

“I think it was a person who just started doing it,” said Parker. “A security person just started doing it, and it just happened. It wasn’t anything that anybody talked about.” 

Although the thoroughness of pat-downs varied among students– some having to turn out their pockets and get their legs checked, while others received a full-body pat-down– it still became the origin of some student distress.

“We went through metal detectors and had to show our tickets multiple times,” said Profusek. “It was weird that I had to lift up my shirt to show I didn’t have anything on my waist.”

Security guards conducted pat-downs on almost every student that entered the stadium, the majority under no reasonable suspicion, and didn’t perform pat-downs on any other attendees. 

According to the student rights section of the ACHS Code of Conduct, “school officials do not need to obtain a warrant before searching a student who is under their authority; they only need reasonable suspicion.”

The facilitation of the pat-downs also violated the school board search and seizure policy implemented by Alexandria City Public Schools, which states, “If a pat-down search of a student’s person is conducted, it will be conducted in private by a school official.”

As a response to Theogony inquiring about these violations, ACPS stated that the implementation of pat-downs was immediately discontinued after the Oct. 10 football game. 

After consulting with the legal counsel and the Office of Safety and Security Services, ACPS relayed that the excessive pat-downs of students was not allowed under the current school board policy. 

“Pat-downs of students are not permitted under the school board policy, unless the student consents to such a search or there is reasonable suspicion that a law or school rule has been broken,” said ACPS. 

As of now, the event is under review by ACPS to ensure the continued protection of civil rights for all students. 

“ACPS is reviewing the incident to ensure proper protocols are followed moving forward,” said ACPS. “Our priority is maintaining a safe environment, while also upholding the civil rights of our students and visitors to ensure everyone’s safety at events.”

In spite of these security inconsistencies, the administration team is open to suggestions and solutions for the process of entering the stadium. 

“We could send something directly to the students here, something on Canvas, and say, ‘hey, if you have any suggestions of things that you feel would make your football experience better, please let us know,’” said Parker. “Just let people know we’re open if they have any suggestions or ideas, and we can go from there.”

This would come as a welcome development to Lewis, who proposes that there should be more than one entrance and exit to the stadium. She also suggests opening the entrance in between the student section bleachers to relieve any potential bottlenecks for the entire duration of the game. 

“In essence, that would mean hiring more security,” said Lewis. “But sometimes you have to do what you have to do to make it safe and help make the process more efficient.”

Though fans recognize the importance of safety, many believe that the extensive security measures are excessive and intrusive.  

“I feel like it’s crazy how we have to go through all these precautions to get into a high school football game,” said Profusek.