By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: May 24, 2011

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

DEL CITY, Okla. – With tornadoes bearing down on communities in central Oklahoma late Tuesday, many people did what they could to find shelter from the storm.

But for Dale and Tara Cameron and their six children, what they expected to be a warm welcome at nearby Del Crest Middle School instead turned dark and ugly as the Camerons were initially greeted with a firm “no” from the school’s assistant principal Sheila Wilson.

It was only after the entire Cameron family appeared at the door – storm clouds growing darker behind them – that Wilson “reluctantly” let the Camerons into the school cafeteria where Wilson’s family and pets were safe and out of the approaching storms.

Disgusted by this treatment from her children’s assistant principal, Tara Cameron initially contacted Red Dirt Report via email on Tuesday evening and included the accompanying photo (at top left) showing one of Assistant Principal Wilson’s vehicles parked under a protective overhang in a breezeway at the school.

Tara Cameron wrote in her email: “This school is located in the center of our neighborhood, where our children GO TO SCHOOL AT. We pay the taxes on that school, and this principal, who is supposed to CARE about OUR children, being their assistant principal, who had the KEYS to SAFETY, left us out to weather the storm while her & her family was safe inside. I HOPE EVERYONE knows what she did and that she is reprimanded by the school district for this absurd selfish act.”

When we talked to Tara and Dale Cameron, they said that yes, Assistant Principal Wilson and her entourage made them feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. In fact one woman accompanying Asst. Principal Wilson went so far as to reprimand one of the Cameron children as they all watched weather reports on television.

"They were very rude to us and our children, not wanting us there," wrote Tara Cameron, a freelance writer and photographer.

But the Camerons had gone to the school not expecting such treatment.

“I have a neighbor, an older woman and she walked over with me and when she saw they weren’t letting anyone else inside she was like, ‘I can’t believe they’re acting like this,’” Tara Cameron said. “’They have a whole cafeteria.’”

The woman, she said, left when it was clear that Wilson did not want people from the neighborhood to come inside the taxpayer-funded school building to seek shelter.

She added: “And they had their dogs in there too. It was unbelievable! Their pets can be safe but kids in the neighborhood aren’t welcome?”

“To say they were unhospitable is putting it mildly,” Tara Cameron said.

Dale Cameron said he was equally disgusted by Wilson’s attitude towards him and his family who live in a home without a basement or storm shelter.

“They didn’t have any logical reason for turning us away so they let us in. But while we were in there they were saying to make sure the doors were locked so no one else could come in,” he said.

He then noted the April 2010 tornado that struck the Love’s on Choctaw Road and I-40 and how brave and compassionate employees saved customers who may have otherwise been injured or killed had it not been for their fast actions in the face of a devastating tornado.

Dale Cameron said ultimately he and his family would head back home as it seemed the worst of the storm would miss Del City. Plus, he didn’t want his family in there – a place with a  negative atmosphere where they weren’t wanted.

“When we decided to leave we started walking towards the door and a man with a  beard asked us if we were leaving. He then followed us to make sure the door was locked so no one else could get in,” he said.

He said he has a neighbor who is new to Oklahoma and not used to tornado weather. He had planned to have his neighbor join him in the school. Now he thinks his worried neighbor would have simply been turned away.

“I’m just disgusted by the way that that happened,” Dale Cameron said. “And I’m thinking, ‘Basically, people will die if this hits and they don’t care.’”

Tara Cameron has been busy contacting media outlets about this experience and even got a conversation going about it on her Facebook page.

“Everybody is like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe they did that. But some people are saying that it is probably school policy or something, that they can’t be responsible. But in a state of emergency, morals and ethics should take precedence over their policy,” Tara Cameron said.

Red Dirt Report did send an email to Assistant Principal Wilson seeking comment but we did not hear from her by the time this story was posted online. And searching the Mid-Del Schools “Weather Information” page it notes that the Del City City Hall is the “designated city storm shelter” operated by the city.

Tara Cameron said she feels as if she tells the school board about her experience, they won’t do anything about it.

An attempt to track down members of the Mid-Del School Board was also unsuccessful late Tuesday evening.

UPDATE: Red Dirt Report contacted the Mid-Del School District on Wednesday morning and spokesperson Stacey Boyer said she would look into the issue. Eventually she emailed us a response about what happened at Del Crest Middle School: