Content warning: This article contains mentions of gun violence.
On March 1, at the National Cheerleading Competition hosted in Dallas, a fight broke out, causing two large poles to fall. The noise triggered mass chaos and a stampede among the approximately 58,000 attendees. The incident resulted in ten hospitalizations, none of which were severe. Many assumed the noise was gunfire, prompting the NCA to evacuate the facility. This also caused panic amongst both cheerleaders and their parents.
The mother of one of these cheerleaders, Caroline Ross, was separated from her daughter when what was initially thought to be a shooting occurred. Ross was in the parent viewing area, with her daughter’s team about to go on stage, when an announcer reportedly said, “If the team will please exit the stage.” This didn’t immediately alarm Ross, who explained that “teams have exited the stage before because of a miscommunication or because an athlete got sick, but we were a little confused as to what was going on cause everything seemed to be going fine.”
The feeling escalated from confusion when people began, as Ross recalls, “running into the ballroom, turning off the lights, and telling everyone to remain quiet.” Ross, a teacher, knew what was happening and was familiar with lockdown procedures “by heart.” As soon as she heard the words “active shooter situation,” all she could think about was “getting to [her] daughter.”
The pair were separated for about an hour and a half, both believing there was an active shooter in the building. When her daughter was permitted to call Ross, she said, “Mommy, thank goodness you’re OK, please don’t die.” Ross had entrusted her daughter’s safety to her cheer coach, but the experience was still hard for her; being unable to “comfort her was the most difficult part.” Ross went on to confirm that she knew her daughter remained with her coach.
Soon after she got off the phone with her daughter, what was believed to be a second round of gunshots further separated Ross from her child. The cause of these sounds has not been confirmed, but many, including Ross, presume it was something like a balloon popping. It was “well over an hour” before the mother and daughter were reunited. When Ross was able to see her daughter again, she said, “I could just feel her body crumple underneath me, sobbing, just grateful to be out of this situation.”
The two experienced what many would call a traumatic event. Yet, people across social media were quick to minimize the cheerleader’s experience. Comments like “It wasn’t even a real shooting,” “They’re milking it,” and “Just get over it” flooded platforms like Facebook, X, and Instagram. Some pointed out that many of the girls in Dallas were still planning on performing, and the NCA chose to postpone rather than cancel the event. As a result, cheerleaders like Ross’s daughter — who just the day before were saying things like, “Please don’t die” — went on stage the following day, not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to perform a cheer they had spent months learning. They were encouraged to perform.
Parents were left, as Ross put it, “gaslit” by social media. Some strangers told these mothers that resuming the competition and not complaining was what they “should do.” Ross stated, “We have had people tell us, ‘Well, nothing happened, so I don’t know why you’re so upset.’ But what you have to take into account is that even if it wasn’t a shooting, we didn’t know that for a very long time, and neither did the kids who experienced one of the most terrifying moments that they could imagine.”
The NCA did not offer a full refund to guests attending the events. Ross herself was only permitted half of the $80 she originally paid and has still not applied for the “refund.” The event still happened, and Ross stated that she felt as if NCA was minimizing the situation, instead seeming to say, “Hey we’re going to give you $40 for all your trauma,” despite charging what Ross finds to be “astronomical prices” for things like hotels, “[making] millions off us annually.”
Ross believes the company handled the scare and its aftermath as best as they could. The NCA promised Ross and other mothers additional precautions for future competitions, such as different bag policies, revised banned items lists, and no outside alcohol. However, these measures don’t directly address concerns from some parents and their daughters, like Ross’s belief that Varsity (The NCA’s parent company) isn’t taking the effects of the event’s impact seriously enough.
“We feel gaslit by both the media and how they’re portraying and almost laughing along with varsity and their response. Some of the portrayals of cheerleaders in the media have been very negative and almost make fun of it, when I can tell you that these athletes are some of the toughest out there,” Ross said.
While Varsity offered free therapy for those affected that weekend, many believe the company is not to blame for the media’s harsh response.