Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy apologized Monday to an organizer of a child cancer vigil that was disrupted Saturday evening at a park near the White House because of security operations.
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“We ended up waiting at the gates for two hours and they never let us in”, said Natasha Gould, an 11-year-old who was invited to speak at the event after blogging about her experience being diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, in an interview with the Washington Post.
“To be clear, the entire crowd was half kids”. “Many children told us they went back to hotel rooms and cried”.
– The U.S. Secret Service is apologizing after an annual event for kids with cancer was cut short over the weekend.
Closures of Lafayette Square have occurred since the September 11th terror attacks.
In a statement that included an apology, agency spokesman Brian Leary said they had to move the group, which had gathered at the storied Lafayette Square park, located just north of the White House, as part of a two-day event called CureFest for Childhood Cancer.
“The Secret Service would like to express its regret for not communicating more effectively with this group concerning the timeline for protectee movements in the vicinity of Lafayette Park”, according to the statement. The apology meant a lot, Gillette said, but he couldn’t accept it on behalf of the children. People had already begun setting up their blankets and listening to the welcome music when they were told they had to leave.
The group had a permit to stage an event from 7 to 9 p.m., Stoddard said. “We had families from all over the country and from different countries”.
Requests for comment from the Secret Service and CureFest were not immediately returned.
“I thought it was just because the president was out, and they didn’t want to let us in because the president was there”, Veazey said.
“We didn’t expect the president’s travel across town would cause our event to be basically canceled”, he said.
Also – I get that the White House can’t light up in support for every single cause that’s out there. So they chose to hold a candlelight vigil of their own. Previous year was the first.
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Last year, Congress launched an investigation of the Secret Service following a series of security breaches and scandals, including several fence-jumping incidents.
