Sapulpa Students Claim Plans To Attend Trump Rally Canceled By Administration

Wednesday, ORU’s Mabee Center is hosting Donald Trump’s first Tulsa campaign stop. They have room for 7,000 but said 9,000 people have already registered.

The Republican presidential candidate will speak at noon and some students in Sapulpa really want to see him in person, but claim their plans to do so were foiled by school administrators.

The ten students from the Sapulpa's Business Professionals of America Club were excited to see the businessman turned presidential candidate, but it's during school hours.

According to reports, already 2,000 more people have registered than will be allowed in, which means the students need to be there right at 10 a.m. when the doors open for everyone.

School leaders said the students are free to go, but it won't be a school sponsored event.

For two weeks, the Sapulpa High School students said they've anticipated Trump's first campaign stop in Tulsa.

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Student Jenna Mitchell said, "We were really excited about being able to go because it was a learning experience for all of us."

To make sure all ten of them got in, they planned ahead.

“We had to let our advisors contact the school board and get advice on how to do it, and so we signed up for it, we got online, got our tickets, got our permissions slips," Mitchell said.

But, they said their chance to see Trump in person was trumped by something else – the school administration.

"I came back today and talked to our principal and they said no again," Mitchell said.

But Principal Johnny Bilby said it wasn't a blanket no, and that there is more to the story.

"We aren't saying no you can't go. We're just saying it's not going to be a school sponsored activity," he said.

Bilby said other presidential candidates – including Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Hillary Clinton - have visited Tulsa but the group didn't request to see them. He said approving a Trump visit would be wrong.

"We feel like, as a school district, we don't want the perception that we are endorsing any candidate," Bilby said.

The students said they didn't try to see the other candidates because, in some cases, it would have cost them money and they didn’t have time to prepare for it.

The school said they won't provide transportation, but that any student interested in going can have their parents call the school and they’ll make it an excused absence.