Yesterday I was reading some of the online chatter in a neighboring town when I saw a story about a girl in a wheelchair who had some issues during a graduation ceremony at Audubon High School. The post was kind of vague, stating just how badly the person felt for the girl and her Father, who from what she wrote, got very upset and began yelling. Not only did the father begin to yell, but so did a group of people who were yelling at the Father to sit down.

The discussions keep getting shut down on the online forums due to heated exchanges on both sides, with many defending the father, and others, chiming in to defend those who told the father to sit down. Either way you cut the cake, nobody seems to know exactly just what happened, so I took the time to reach out to the father of the young lady in the wheelchair to get his side of the story.

The father let me know that his daughter has a condition that causes her to need to use a wheelchair, but she also can wear braces, which makes it so she can stand for short periods of time.

The student who was called to receive their diploma prior to his daughter being called, got a very loud ovation from the crowd, yet before the ovation was over, they read his daughter’s name, but she did not hear it. The father’s daughter had already been standing for sometime with her leg braces on, and as the names kept getting called, the father noticed her legs starting to buckle. Knowing that her name was already passed by, and that she could fall if she continued to stand, he tried to get into her field of sight to tell her it was ok for her to sit in her wheelchair that was next to her.

It was at that point he said that people from behind him began to rudely tell him to sit down, to which he admits that he replied with an expletive, causing a shouting match too ensue.

The father of the girl doesn’t blame the school or administration for the situation, nor does he think anything was done to purposely harm his daughter, he was just merely doing what any good father would do, protecting his child.