NEW ORLEANS — A graduation ceremony turned sour Thursday after parents hoping to watch their loved ones accept their diploma found themselves out in the foyer.
School officials at Benjamin Franklin High School are now responding to the incident, saying they feel terrible about what happened.
"Our team went, they planned, we had everything laid out the way we thought would work well," said school Headmaster Patrick Widhalm.
Speaking openly with Eyewitness News, Widhalm tried clarifying what happened at Thursday's graduation.
“We moved to Mahalia Jackson Theater because of the more intimate setting than the arena," Widhalm said. "Lakefront Arena was good in many ways because 10,000 people could be there but the vantage point and the intimacy of an arena we thought, 'let's try Mahalia Jackson.'"
However, the smaller venue filled up, leaving parents out in the hallway.
"This is a shame, it should've been better than this," said Toinette Walker. "They had the doors locked and they say they weren't letting anyone in because they were full to capacity."
Widhalm says he wasn't aware of parents not being allowed inside, and says it was a horrible thing to find out happened.
"We were terribly distraught with that," he said. "This is a moment, it's a milestone in life and to have parents miss that was very difficult."
In past years, Widhalm says graduation attendance is typically around 1,500 people. With seating for more than 2,200, they believed the theater would be sufficient and tickets wouldn't be needed. However, when asked if he think tickets should've been issued, Widhalm said yes.
"And we talked about that in the planning period and we said no, we've never had to issue tickets," he said. "Even at Mahalia Jackson, even when we had more graduates, our max number of guests was 1,500 so it never dawned on us or struck us that we'd have this kind of overwhelming response to this class and their graduation."
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An e-mail sent to parents explained the situation and apologized for what happened. It stated:
Dear class of 2019 parents and families,
Congratulations to the Class of 2019 on their commencement yesterday afternoon. It was a spirited and well-deserved celebration of 219 outstanding young men and women, marred only by the fact that the Mahalia Jackson Theater reached seating capacity once the ceremony began. The decision to move from the Lakefront Arena to the Mahalia Jackson Theater was made in order to provide a more intimate venue for this special event. The seating capacity is 2,243. After reserving seats for the graduates and faculty, that left about 1,975 seats. The planning committee and I did not see a need to require tickets with an average of nine seats available for each graduate. We were wrong, and we apologize to each family member and friend who was kept out of the theater. It is a very small consolation, but the entire ceremony was broadcast and is available on YouTube ... The planning committee is meeting this morning to review all aspects of yesterday's ceremony and venue so we do not have this issue next year. Again, to the family and friends of the Class of 2019 who were kept out of the theater, we apologize that you were not able to participate fully in the celebration of your graduate."
The words were expressed again by Widhalm.
"For those who didn't get in, we deeply regret that," he told Eyewitness News. "Our purpose in that ceremony, and I said it at the beginning, is to celebrate family because these students have achieved what they achieved with family support."
The moment parents argue was poorly planned.
“It’s horrible, it’s ridiculous," said Walker.
School officials say they're trying to right their wrong, and are looking into it so this doesn't happen again. Widhalm added they'll revisit venue options and will also look at the possibility of adding tickets, limiting a certain number per student.