Lee’s Summit says teen’s YouTube audience was a concern at water park party. Really?

The abrupt cancellation of a Black teenager’s birthday party at Lee’s Summit water park over the weekend is shedding a terrible light on the city’s parks and recreation department and left the teen’s family struggling with questions.

We have one main question for the city: What were you thinking? Why the public water park refused to admit a Black family that had contracted for a private party with their 250 guests has to be sorted out.

Even if city officials honestly believe that the reason “had nothing to do with race,” in the words of Melissa Pfannenstiel, marketing coordinator for the Lee’s Summit parks department, they have to know that most folks will jump to that conclusion. That’s because city employees mishandled a situation they themselves created. They should be reprimanded and certainly given remedial training in dealing with the public.

At the very least, the city owes a public apology to Chris Evans and LeyShon and their teenage sons, who were turned away along with their friends at the entrance to the Summit Waves aquatic center Saturday. And we’re grateful that’s just what Lee’s Summit Parks and Recreation Department, which runs the water park, did late Tuesday afternoon in a statement: “A sincere apology is owed to the Evans family and our Lee’s Summit community.”

The city’s apology came after two days of intense news coverage and with the Evans family condemning officials for canceling the birthday party at the pool.

We still haven’t heard a reason for that action that makes sense. Chris Evans, a Kansas City business owner, says an apology wouldn’t be enough anyway. “There needs to be some real consequence so people understand that this is wrong.” Evans said. “Lee’s Summit has to get a deep understanding of diversity and awareness.”

The family’s position is supported by none other than Lee’s Summit Mayor William Baird, who denounced the actions of the city parks department as “inappropriate” in a statement Tuesday.

Baird said he “encouraged” the department “to reevaluate their approach to communicating and interacting with patrons of our park system … so that everyone is treated with dignity and respect.” He also said, “We must continually denounce any urge or impulse to exclude.”

Chris Evans said he met last month with Lee’s Summit Aquatic Manager Grace Carson and signed a contract reserving the entire park for two hours and 250 guests. He paid more than $2,000 for the private party, which the city would staff.

But when Evans called Carson on their way to the aquatic center, she told them “this type of event doesn’t represent Summit Waves.”

Huh? A birthday party?

Carson — hands on her hips and flanked by two Lee’s Summit police officers — met the Evans family at the pool. She forbade them entry, saying the group made her “uncomfortable,” Evans said.

That sounds like code for a fear of people of color.

Chris Evans believed at the time and still believes “we were being racially profiled.” Others got the same impression. A video circulating online shows a park employee, whom Evans identified as Carson, telling the group they cannot enter the park. When Evans asks why, a person is heard saying, “Because we’re Black.”

Most friends invited by the Evans’ teenage sons Isaiah and Noah Evans via social media had not yet arrived at the park, Evans said. “I was embarrassed,” said 17-year-old Isaiah, whose birthday was to be celebrated. “I was in disbelief because we had been talking about this party all summer.”

Isaiah said the officers later apologized to him “that this happened.”

So what was it about this group of teens and their parents that made the manager of a city-run water park so uncomfortable — a manager, mind you, who should be used to dealing with large crowds?

The aquatic center offers after-hour party rentals of its entire facility for various sized gatherings — from small groups of 100 or fewer to large parties of more than 1,000, according to its website.

And yet, officials were concerned about a group that numbered only several hundred guests?

Staff says social media followers a concern

Joe Snook, assistant administrator of Lee’s Summit Parks and Recreation said the Evans party was canceled after his staff became aware of social media posts advertising the event. “This raised serious concerns about the safety of party guests and the possibility the event would grow beyond the capacity of staff.”

Of course teens posted on social media. “How else would they invite 250 people to their party?” Chris Evans asked.

Isaiah Evans is a YouTube influencer with more than 64,000 followers across the country. But that’s no reason to assume all those followers would show up for a private two-hour pool party in Lee’s Summit. So what’s the message? If you’re popular on social media, which nearly every teen wants to be, you can’t post about a Summit Waves party?

But as Evans family attorney Ivan Nugent told us, the park’s party contract “encourages” customers to promote events there on social media.

It’s Summit Waves’ responsibility to count how many people enter for a party. The park had a contract for hosting up to 250 guests. It should have been prepared to manage that number.

City officials say about 500 teens showed up at the aquatic facility — a number the family disputes. “That’s not true,” Nugent said. Half the people in the parking lot were leaving after spending the day at the facility. They lingered after noticing the Evans were being turned away, he said.

Chris himself had taken extra measures for crowd control, above and beyond the contract’s requirements. He said he hired additional security, including five unarmed guards and one armed officer, and arranged for about a dozen adults to chaperone and patrol the parking lot.

“We wanted everyone to show up, have a good time and for everyone to be safe,” he said.

Lee’s Summit, a predominantly white suburb of Kansas City, has been at the center of race-related controversies in recent years. In 2019 the first and only African American superintendent of schools there resigned after months of conflict with school board members and threats of violence from the community over his recommendation for diversity, equity and inclusion training.

Last year, the school board allowed a high school coach who repeated the n-word in front of a student to keep his job after the superintendent had recommended that he be fired.

And after the weekend’s incident, a Summit Waves employee posted on social media: “Apparently we are canceled and being dragged but we don’t give a single f***.” The expletive was spelled out and accompanied by her photo and a smiley-face icon.

Mayor Baird rightfully condemned that post as “appalling.” But just as appalling is how city employees treated the Evans family.

City parks officials made wrongful assumptions about the Evans’ birthday party, and were wrong to abruptly cancel it. They provoked an emotional encounter that if not for the dignity of the family and their guests could have been a worse situation.

The shameful incident serves as a stark reminder of how far Lee’s Summit still has to go to shed its reputation as a place that doesn’t welcome diversity and inclusion.