Essentially the entire conference wound up in the same line (which was ridiculously long) all at once due to bad scheduling, which turned out horribly in the Houston heat. Most of my team was either sunburning, close to passing out, or in extreme pain due to medical conditions and lack of accommodations. One of my teammates needs to eat protein frequently due to a diagnosed medical issue, and the security attempted to seize a banana from her bag. They attempted to confiscate my anxiety meds and accompanying snacks to be able to take them, and when I explained that I needed those and showed them the prescription label she claimed that if they’re edible they’re snacks and had to be confiscated. She called her supervisor when I resisted and after about five minutes of deliberation (holding up the overheated line even more) they finally let me through. FIRST officials were overwhelmed with the mass of people and and their methods for directing through the metal detector and full bag search line kept switching, causing teams to be split up and those who were told their team would be competing at 4 (it was about two minutes till) to not be given entry and told rather harshly (borderline yelling) to wait. I understand the frustration of the staff as well but the organization could have been done much better, being that the divisions were amazingly done. On top of all this, water was not permitted, water fountains are difficult and possibly even non-existent on the premises, and water bottles range from 5-7$. Pumping thousands and thousands of students through what feels like 110 degree weather and then making them pay ridiculous amounts just to stay hydrated is completely unacceptable. They also allowed several people to take in fuel that were for signing, though they held up the line after confiscating my friends fuel cell and when we brought it up, yet again, they brought over the supervisor and held up the line again.
The reason I’ve rambled and ranted so much is to offer more examples as to the types of issues with the championships.
** tldr; minute maid Park was a mess and needs to be more accommodating and not three times slower than the TSA**
Sorry it was so long and rambly, but I’m excited from that line. Frankly an organization who puts so much emphasis on safety needs to get this threat to student health together.
SHOULDN’T HAVE ALL BROUGHT BAGS WHEN THEY SAID NOT TO BRING BAGSSSSSSSSSS
Yes yes because I can carry my medicine, money for water and food, ID, pins, and all my stuff from the main convention and my phone in my two hands.
It’s ridiculous to expect us or anyone to show up fully prepared for the division playoffs then suddenly have all our stuff disappear. Literally everyone here has bags, and NOWHERE did any of my team see them saying not to bring bags. If they had said that we’d have brought a box.
Do you have pockets? or a pit?
I get it. They shouldn’t have brought bags. Are you about to say that this kid shouldn’t have brought what he was required to have for medical reasons?
I guarantee my wife carries more medicine around than you and she didn’t need a bag. It was literally on all the tv screens and emails all weekend. You had all day from 9-4 if you didn’t make playoffs. And from about 1-4 if you won your divisions
As a female bodied individual who wears clothes that fit, pockets are nothing but a dream. And the pits are in the other venue and I’m pretty sure are closed now. The team completely packed up and left.
That’s why they said to leave your stuff in your hotels/busses
As I said literally none of my team got those messages, and looking around, neither did most of the people here. And it’s not necessarily only meds, my entire comp bag was taken by my team and when I regrouped with them we quickly got trapped in the swarm. We couldn’t put bags in the bus if we WANTED to. Not without hurting several people and getting back in the end of the four hour line.
I kind of need more than just a bottle of pills and a phone to survive out all day. And my team required us to watch matches and help clean the pit, so I wasn’t free until lunch, at which point I ate lunch by the time we got our food and finished cleaning up we had to leave.
That is where your planning comes in.
Either way it’s completely unreasonable from a logical standpoint taking into account the vast variety of people with different levels of about and needs that participate in FIRST to flat out ban bags. It’s honestly just a REALLY bad idea when people are in a venue for over four hours.
How can you plan for something you didn’t know about? How can you plan for a medical issue?
**THEY DIDN’T BAN BAGS THEY JUST SAID NOT TO BRING ONE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
BUT ALL Y’ALL BROUGHT BAGS **
I think everyone should’ve expected bags to be searched and should have looked for ways to bring less, especially when FIRST specifically asks people not to bring bags. A huge amount of the congestion was caused by very few people listening to this rule.
That being said, it’s clear that there were not enough people working on security and that is a problem FIRST needs to address. Anyone who has a medical need will always be allowed to bring medication into the arena, that is federal law. It is also important to understand the policies like not allowing outside food and water and not allowing certain items (usually lithium batteries and weapons of any kind) into the venue are not in any way controlled by FIRST.
As a female bodied individual who wears clothes that fit, pockets are nothing but a dream. And the pits are in the other venue and I’m pretty sure are closed now. The team completely packed up and left.
No need to snap at Sam. Both of his suggestions are completely reasonable. (And don’t even get CD started on women’s pants) In addition, you very easily can hold a wallet, medication, and a phone in your hands, the issue is that you brought other stuff as well which again goes back to my first paragraph.
The same way anyone with a chronic illness does, it’s not very hard you just can’t be lazy
Yeah, I don’t get why everyone needs a bag at an event like this, it’s ridiculous.
I’m watching from home and I didn’t need to bring a bag. c’mon, this is simple stuff people. :rolleyes:
As someone with a chronic illness, this is not always possible. Certain medications need to be taken at certain times, certain things need to be done at certain times, etc. Perhaps people are overreacting, but there is no reason to suggest that people with medical conditions cannot be accommodated. If they aren’t, you can very easily mark this as a violation of the Americans with Disabilities act.
Exactly, don’t be part of the problem and bring a bag with a bunch of stuff to dig through and then wonder why you took 5 minutes to get through the metal detector.
Those are obviously the people that would bring a bag if they have too.