Members of the Broadmoor Recreation Commission do not want Natchez students to get a bad rap due to last week’s &uot;senior skip day.&uot;

&uot;Students weren’t fighting, They weren’t using profanity. They had no problem whatsoever,&uot; said Charles Sanders, a member of the commission.

And the same goes for alcohol, said Sanders and commission member Willie Davis.

The annual party at Broadmoor park, which is unsanctioned by the Natchez-Adams School District, drew attention last week when Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies rushed to the scene in response to reports of fighting and gunshots.

After deputies arrived at the scene, Thursday they closed the park. They also found bullet casings at the scene.

But Sanders and Davis both say the problems took place away from were the students where having their party and selling food to raise money for a senior trip.

Davis and Sanders say several hundred students came to the park’s sheltered picnic areas on one side of the ballpark.

But the reports of gunshots and drinking actually took place on the opposite side of the ballpark at the park’s basketball court where a group of about 30 young adults regularly hang out, they said.

Although alcohol is prohibited at county parks, &uot;they do that every evening – drinking over there,&uot; Davis said.

Davis and Sanders said &uot;senior skip day&uot; has taken place at the Broadmoor park for about four years.

They learned about this year’s event about two weeks before it took place when a parent signed for the park as required by the commission.

But Davis and Sanders said they did not know the event was not sanctioned by the school district and the both said they did not want to support students skipping school.

&uot;It bothers me now,&uot; Davis said. &uot;If I had known that it wasn’t official.&uot;

Yet Sanders was not sure if they could prohibit access to a public park.

&uot;If some parent comes to us wanting to use the park on that day it is a public park we can’t turn them down and get away with it,&uot; Sanders said.