It’s August, it must be creeper season…
Sorry for the title, trying to get your attention. If you have been a What The Feis groupie for a while, you have probably already seen the article I posted last August about the guy videoing dancers at a feis. If not, here is the link again.
Why am I bringing it up, well, it happened again this weekend and I wanted to share the story from a follower who messaged it to me via Facebook.
Wanted to write to you and let you know that we were at the Missouri State Championships in St. Louis this weekend and while watching the PC/OC stage we sat next to an older gentleman. We noticed that he was not just watching one particular child and when a young little dancer would walk by him he would write her number down on a sheet if paper. When I took a closer look at the sheet he was writing on there were LOTS of different dancers numbers. We went to let the volunteers know and in about five minutes staff of the Feis and hotel security were talking to the man. He stated he was just watching his “granddaughter” but he became very uncomfortable while they talked with him. Staff then looked like they were leaving but the hotel security guard sat two rows back. We watched as this man crumpled the numbers sheet up and dropped it on the floor and then he got up and walked out of the room. The security guard followed him out. We later caught back up with the staff and security guard and they stated they took his photo and all staff would have his picture for Sundays Feis. It was just scary to know that this happens even though we read about it this hit home for our school and we spread the word for dancers to be vigilant about what they are walking around in and also who is talking/watching them.
She also added:
the STAFF for the Feis did an amazing job at handling this! I think they need to know that too. 🙂
It truly saddens me that these kinds of things happen, but this should serve as a reminder that we have to be always watching. That is not easy at a feis, with everything that is going on, but if just one person reports anything ‘out of the ordinary’, it will make a difference.
Please share this with everyone, the more people that are aware that it CAN happen to them, the better. It happened to us.
You may also want to take a look at some of the other posts about safety I have put together. If you have any to share, please do and I will post links to them.
Thanks, and please be careful out there!
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