For the past 11 years, Blackburn College has hosted a convocation on Veterans Day to honor those who have served and are serving in the U.S. military, but there is no Blackburn College Student Handbook policy that states students are required to attend this event. However, some campus services (C.S.) workers were told that they had to attend the ceremony this year or risk a write-up.
Senior biology major Chad Harrison stated, “Everyone on the 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift in C.S. was in fact required to attend and threatened by the supervisors with disciplinary action as it was incorporated into our 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift.” He discussed his mixed feelings on the situation since it goes against his perception of freedom. Harrison clarified that he should be free to express his respect for veterans in his own way rather than being forced to go to an event he did not plan on attending. However, he did attend the event.
Sophomore communications major Sebastian Hitzelburger said he had also been told that C.S. workers on the 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift were required to attend the convocation. “I was told by one of the assistant managers that the workers were required to go to the Veterans Day convocation, or they were going to get a write-up,” he said. Hitzelburger mentioned that C.S. assistant manager Jonna Hambrick had given him these instructions. He did not attend the convocation.
Hambrick stated that C.S. supervisor Torry Grady had told her that students were to receive write-ups if they did not attend. “They were told to come to the regular 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. shift. They were supposed to clean their buildings until 11 a.m. and then they would go over to the convocation with their crew heads,” she said. “If they failed to go over to the convocation then it resulted in a write-up. The convocation was a ‘free’ hour for them. All they had to do was show up.”
C.S. manager Christina Newton clarified Hambrick’s statements. “A supervisor or someone had emailed Torry and asked us if all the people on the shift from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. would go because everything was let out for the convocation, so we wanted the people who were on the shift to go, so they could receive the time for it,” she said. She added that no one received a write-up.
Grady also stated that there were no write-ups issued to those who didn’t wish to attend the convocation. He asked the crew on shift to spend an hour in their work areas, and then at 11 a.m., they could go over to the Veterans Day convocation. He added, “It was something that I was being nice giving them. Instead of spending two hours cleaning the buildings, they only had to spend one hour doing so. We were gonna pick up the slack on the following day or the following week.” Grady also said that he did not realize any individuals had an issue with attending in the first place as he was never approached.
According to the website for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there is no legal requirement that schools close on Veterans Day. “Most schools that do not close for Veterans Day schedule assemblies or other activities to honor America’s veterans on Veterans Day and throughout the week that includes Veterans Day,” it added.