[Alex2614]

Personally, I really enjoyed being screamed at by several security guards at the planetarium and science center. A group of students and I were trying to get back from outside the planetarium to the front entrance to the science center to meet up with the rest of our group and board our bus, when the security staff decided to close it off and not let anybody in or out. As many of you know, the planetarium is across the freeway from the science center, so we needed to figure out how to get back across. However, when we approached the security staff to ask them this question, they literally screamed "Don't ask us anything! It is closed! BACK UP! DON'T ASK US ANYTHING!" They were treating us as if we were about to start a riot or something, and we were honestly afraid of getting sprayed or something. Thank God I was not separated from the group, as I know at least one group next to us was, as that would have left a group of students without a mentor. Finally, one of the security staff looked over to the others, told them to calm down, and said "anybody that needs to get to the other side, follow me," and everything was okay. There were about 50 of us still left outside, and if they would have just let us go through the building before closing it off, it would have been okay. Anyway, we proceeded through the extremely crowded science center with security staff again screaming to exit the building more quickly, which we were honestly trying to do, but there were just so many people.

Once back up with our group in the lobby of the science center, the security staff was again yelling at us to exit the building. We explained to them that we still had a student on his way back to the group, and we will exit when he returns, but were met with harsh screams again.

Once outside, we had no idea which busses to board, as the signs around the lawn were confusing and we had no idea which ones to pay attention to, and where to board. I was also talking to a mentor/parent in the group with a service dog (a lot of you probably saw him in the pits wearing safety glasses), who was met with nothing but rudeness and literal pushing and shoving by not only staff but students and mentors as well.

Comparing Atlanta's finales in Centennial Olympic Park with the past 3 finales in St. Louis quite frankly makes me angry. There was not a single smile on anybody's face at 10:00 at the FIRST finale, but instead, frustration, anger, confusion, and worry. It should not be this way at the FIRST finale. It should be a time of closure, fun, and relaxation. This has not been the case in St. Louis as far as I have seen the past 3 years.

What they should have done is have the busses drop off at the planetarium, where there is the huge lawn, and if people want to see the science center at that point, they could. There is no point in shoving thousands of people through that cramped building when most people's ultimate destination was in the very back, outside (where there was another bus turn-around) to watch the fireworks and participate in the games. Heaven forbid an emergency situation would have happened, there would have been casualties.

Maybe this isn't the place, but while I'm at it, I will talk about before the finale. Back in the dome before the closing ceremonies began, there was an extreme lack of communication resulting in some more screams by security staff on multiple occasions. We proceeded to the upper level after we were told it was open at 2:30, just to be met with screaming security staff members asking us why we were up there (not just us, but the entire mob). They told us to not move, even though just below us was a MOVING escalator with large amounts of people trying to get up (can anybody say disaster?). Then when we found our seats, security proceeded to tell (yell) us that they were only allowing the first 4 rows of the upper level to be open, and that we had to move, even though FIRST takes up much more than that. Mind you, at this point, the first 4 rows of the entire level were already occupied.

I'm sorry, but after all of my experiences of CMP at STL in the past 3 years, I'm just about done with it.