Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump rented out middle school and high school gymnasiums in Marshalltown, Iowa, for campaign events, forcing the school district to let students out early, ABC 5 reports.
"[I] cancelled an appointment to pick up my nephew and I got sick kids at home also, so I had to rearrange my schedule to have someone watch them so I could come get my nephew," Marshalltown resident Tamara Deubel said.
Some parents said they were not convinced that letting students out early for a political event was a good idea.
"My personal opinion, I don't think that they should have been let out early," one parent said.
Andrew Potter, director of communications for the Marshalltown Community School District, said that he understood why parents would be upset for the missed time in the classroom but that the school district felt that the safety of their students was more important.
The middle school and high school gymnasiums are public spaces that are available for an hourly rental fee and the school district can use its discretion to permit or deny any applicant to use the spaces.
Potter said that when the district realized how much setup and security was needed, it was decided to let all students out at 1 p.m. The district also said that in hindsight, they should have asked the candidates to push their visits back to later in the evening.
Potter said the school district estimated that the crowd for the Trump rally would be larger because this was his only stop in Marshalltown, causing further security concerns.