Protect Students and Families: Temporarily Relocate Millbrook Football Games Until Plan
The Issue
Petition to:
Dr. Robert P. Taylor, Superintendent, Wake County Public School System
Chris McCabe, Northern Area Superintendent
Monica Sawyer, Principal, Millbrook Magnet High School
Wake County Board of Education
High school football should be a place where students compete, families cheer, and communities come together. No parent should have to question whether attending a football game could place their child or family in harm’s way.
We are calling upon Wake County Public School System leadership to conduct a formal review of the safety, security, supervision, conduct, and leadership surrounding Millbrook High School football games and the football program.
Our Immediate Recommendation: Temporarily Relocate Millbrook Home Games
Until WCPSS completes a formal investigation and determines that an adequate security and crowd management plan is in place, we strongly recommend that Millbrook High School football games not be hosted at Millbrook’s home stadium.
This is not a request to cancel Millbrook’s season or punish its student athletes. Games can continue at alternative WCPSS approved venues capable of providing appropriate law enforcement staffing, controlled entry and exit, spectator screening, separation of opposing student sections, and effective emergency evacuation.
The events of September 25 demonstrate why this temporary precaution deserves serious consideration. A Millbrook home game involving thousands of spectators experienced widespread fighting, evacuation of the stands, continued disturbances outside the stadium, a substantial police response, and ultimately a second stoppage that prevented the game from being completed.
Until WCPSS determines what failed and demonstrates that appropriate safeguards have been implemented, we believe continuing to bring visiting students, athletes, parents, and families into this environment without additional protections presents an unnecessary and avoidable risk.
The Millbrook vs. Rolesville Game: The Most Serious Incident
The September 25, 2026 Millbrook vs. Rolesville rivalry game represents the most egregious example of the concerns prompting this petition.
Multiple fights erupted during the game. Raleigh police reported that an initial fight involving teenagers near an end zone was followed by additional fights throughout the stadium.
The situation became serious enough that play was stopped and spectators were ordered to evacuate the stadium.
After approximately a 25 minute delay, the teams were permitted to resume the fourth quarter inside an emptied stadium. Millbrook eventually tied the game 10 to 10, sending the contest toward overtime.
But the disturbances did not end.
Fights and disturbances continued outside the stadium and at nearby locations. Authorities ultimately stopped the game a second time before overtime could begin while police worked to clear the campus and surrounding area.
As of October 3, no date has been announced for completing the overtime period.
During the evacuation, rumors circulated that someone had a firearm. Law enforcement subsequently stated that it found no evidence substantiating those reports. Nevertheless, the rumor intensified an already frightening situation as students and families attempted to leave.
An Estimated 6,000 Spectators and Only Five Deputies
The security planning for this rivalry game deserves serious scrutiny.
ABC11 reported that attendance at the sold out Millbrook vs. Rolesville game was estimated at approximately 6,000 spectators, while the Wake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that only five deputies were initially assigned to the game.
A former police chief and crowd management consultant interviewed by ABC11 questioned whether that staffing level was sufficient for a crowd of that magnitude.
WRAL separately reported an attendance figure of nearly 2,000 based on WCPSS information. Regardless of the discrepancy between estimates, thousands of students, parents, and community members were present.
The situation ultimately required a dramatically larger law enforcement response, with WRAL reporting approximately 50 officers on scene.
That raises an important question:
Were the foreseeable risks associated with one of the area’s largest and most intense rivalry games adequately anticipated by Millbrook and WCPSS leadership?
Serious Questions About Security Screening
Millbrook announced before the Rolesville game that spectators would enter through a designated gate and be screened using metal detectors.
Students subsequently told WRAL that as the crowd became overwhelming, some attendees were allowed inside without individually passing through the metal detector. Follow up reporting also documented concerns that spectators jumped a fence and bypassed screening.
Security questions continued at Millbrook’s very next football game.
When Millbrook traveled to Leesville Road the following week, WRAL reported that spectators entering the game did not pass through metal detectors, although law enforcement officers were present and WCPSS’s clear bag policy remained in effect.
This raises a broader question for WCPSS:
After a rivalry game involving widespread fighting, an emergency evacuation, rumors of a firearm, and suspension of the game, why was there not an immediately recognizable and consistent enhanced security protocol for Millbrook’s next football game?
Concerns Extend Beyond One Game
Members of the Leesville Road football community have also raised concerns regarding an incident following a 2025 Millbrook vs. Leesville Road JV football game.
According to eyewitness accounts that should be investigated by WCPSS, Millbrook players heckled and confronted Leesville players as the visiting team attempted to leave the stadium. Millbrook players were also alleged to have shoved spectators who were exiting.
Witnesses have questioned whether Millbrook coaches made adequate efforts to immediately de escalate the situation and control their players.
We ask WCPSS to investigate these accounts, including any available video, school reports, communications, witness statements, and disciplinary records.
Social Media and the Millbrook vs. Rolesville Rivalry
Additional concerns have been raised regarding threatening or inflammatory social media activity involving individuals associated with the Millbrook football program, including players and coaching personnel.
A significant portion of these concerns has surrounded the increasingly heated rivalry with Rolesville High School, including social media activity before rivalry games that parents believe may contribute to hostility and escalation between the programs.
Given the serious disturbances that ultimately occurred at the September 25 Millbrook vs. Rolesville game, WCPSS should determine whether online conduct by players or coaching personnel contributed to an environment in which tensions were encouraged rather than de escalated.
We are not asking the public to accept these allegations as established fact.
We are asking WCPSS to investigate them.
Relevant social media material should be preserved and reviewed to determine whether conduct by any student athlete, coach, employee, or individual acting in an official capacity violated WCPSS, NCHSAA, school, or athletic program standards.
Millbrook’s Own Standards
Millbrook Football’s published Code of Conduct expects participants to behave courteously toward visitors and opponents and describes a zero tolerance policy for actions jeopardizing anyone’s safety.
Parents should be able to expect those standards to be enforced.
Players must be accountable for their conduct, but accountability cannot stop with teenagers.
The adults entrusted with coaching, supervising, and developing these young men must model and enforce those standards themselves.
A Broader Security History
These concerns exist against a documented history of serious security incidents at Millbrook.
In February 2023, a juvenile brought a loaded AR 15 into a basketball game at Millbrook High School.
The incident was followed by strengthened security procedures for athletic events and preceded WCPSS’s implementation of a districtwide clear bag policy.
In February 2026, Millbrook entered a Code Red lockdown after police found a Millbrook senior with a loaded handgun on campus. News reports identified the student as a member of the Millbrook football team.
The following day, another threat circulated through social media and text messages, resulting in increased security while authorities investigated.
Going further back, a gun and ammunition were recovered from students at Millbrook in 2017.
We are not suggesting that these incidents are connected.
We are saying that collectively they demonstrate why concerns involving security, supervision, weapons prevention, and behavioral expectations at Millbrook deserve serious attention.
Accountability Starts With Adult Leadership
High school coaches do more than teach football.
They establish expectations. They influence culture. They determine what behavior is tolerated. They teach young men how to compete intensely without threatening, intimidating, fighting, or endangering others.
When concerns about behavior become recurring, WCPSS must examine not only individual students but also the adult leadership and culture surrounding the program.
Responsibility for addressing these concerns extends through the leadership responsible for Millbrook High School:
Monica Sawyer, Principal, Millbrook Magnet High School
Chris McCabe, Northern Area Superintendent
Dr. Robert P. Taylor, Superintendent, Wake County Public School System
Wake County Board of Education
What We Are Asking WCPSS to Do
Temporarily relocate Millbrook home football games to alternative WCPSS approved venues until this investigation is completed and WCPSS determines that adequate security, screening, crowd control, and emergency evacuation procedures are in place at Millbrook.
Conduct an independent review of the September 25 Millbrook vs. Rolesville game, including security planning, law enforcement staffing, entrance screening, crowd control, emergency exits, and evacuation procedures.
Investigate the reported 2025 Millbrook vs. Leesville JV postgame confrontation, including allegations involving player behavior and the adequacy of coaching supervision.
Review relevant social media activity involving Millbrook football players and coaching personnel, particularly communications surrounding rivalry games that could reasonably be interpreted as threatening opponents, encouraging confrontation, or escalating tensions.
Review the leadership and culture of the Millbrook football program, including whether coaches consistently enforce WCPSS, NCHSAA, and Millbrook Football conduct expectations and appropriately intervene when players engage in threatening, intimidating, or aggressive behavior.
Develop a written corrective action and game security plan addressing law enforcement staffing, weapons screening, spectator separation, emergency exits, evacuation procedures, and enhanced requirements for rivalry and high attendance games.
Take appropriate disciplinary or personnel action when warranted if the investigation substantiates misconduct by students, coaches, staff, or others acting on behalf of the program.
Provide a public response from WCPSS explaining what corrective actions will be implemented to protect home and visiting athletes, students, parents, and spectators.
This Is About Prevention
This petition is not an attack on Millbrook High School, its students, its athletes, or its families.
It is about preventing the next incident.
Parents should not have to wait until someone is seriously injured before reasonable questions about supervision, security, program culture, and accountability are answered.
The September 25 Millbrook vs. Rolesville game was a warning that should not be ignored.
Thousands of people attended a high school football game. Multiple fights erupted. The stands had to be evacuated. The teams resumed play without spectators. Disturbances continued outside the stadium. Authorities stopped the competition again before overtime could begin.
The game could not even be completed.
WCPSS now has an opportunity and an obligation to determine what went wrong, determine whether broader security, supervisory, or cultural problems contributed to the situation, and establish safeguards before another student, athlete, parent, or visiting family is placed at unnecessary risk.
We ask Superintendent Dr. Robert P. Taylor, Northern Area Superintendent Chris McCabe, Principal Monica Sawyer, and the Wake County Board of Education to take immediate action.
28
The Issue
Petition to:
Dr. Robert P. Taylor, Superintendent, Wake County Public School System
Chris McCabe, Northern Area Superintendent
Monica Sawyer, Principal, Millbrook Magnet High School
Wake County Board of Education
High school football should be a place where students compete, families cheer, and communities come together. No parent should have to question whether attending a football game could place their child or family in harm’s way.
We are calling upon Wake County Public School System leadership to conduct a formal review of the safety, security, supervision, conduct, and leadership surrounding Millbrook High School football games and the football program.
Our Immediate Recommendation: Temporarily Relocate Millbrook Home Games
Until WCPSS completes a formal investigation and determines that an adequate security and crowd management plan is in place, we strongly recommend that Millbrook High School football games not be hosted at Millbrook’s home stadium.
This is not a request to cancel Millbrook’s season or punish its student athletes. Games can continue at alternative WCPSS approved venues capable of providing appropriate law enforcement staffing, controlled entry and exit, spectator screening, separation of opposing student sections, and effective emergency evacuation.
The events of September 25 demonstrate why this temporary precaution deserves serious consideration. A Millbrook home game involving thousands of spectators experienced widespread fighting, evacuation of the stands, continued disturbances outside the stadium, a substantial police response, and ultimately a second stoppage that prevented the game from being completed.
Until WCPSS determines what failed and demonstrates that appropriate safeguards have been implemented, we believe continuing to bring visiting students, athletes, parents, and families into this environment without additional protections presents an unnecessary and avoidable risk.
The Millbrook vs. Rolesville Game: The Most Serious Incident
The September 25, 2026 Millbrook vs. Rolesville rivalry game represents the most egregious example of the concerns prompting this petition.
Multiple fights erupted during the game. Raleigh police reported that an initial fight involving teenagers near an end zone was followed by additional fights throughout the stadium.
The situation became serious enough that play was stopped and spectators were ordered to evacuate the stadium.
After approximately a 25 minute delay, the teams were permitted to resume the fourth quarter inside an emptied stadium. Millbrook eventually tied the game 10 to 10, sending the contest toward overtime.
But the disturbances did not end.
Fights and disturbances continued outside the stadium and at nearby locations. Authorities ultimately stopped the game a second time before overtime could begin while police worked to clear the campus and surrounding area.
As of October 3, no date has been announced for completing the overtime period.
During the evacuation, rumors circulated that someone had a firearm. Law enforcement subsequently stated that it found no evidence substantiating those reports. Nevertheless, the rumor intensified an already frightening situation as students and families attempted to leave.
An Estimated 6,000 Spectators and Only Five Deputies
The security planning for this rivalry game deserves serious scrutiny.
ABC11 reported that attendance at the sold out Millbrook vs. Rolesville game was estimated at approximately 6,000 spectators, while the Wake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that only five deputies were initially assigned to the game.
A former police chief and crowd management consultant interviewed by ABC11 questioned whether that staffing level was sufficient for a crowd of that magnitude.
WRAL separately reported an attendance figure of nearly 2,000 based on WCPSS information. Regardless of the discrepancy between estimates, thousands of students, parents, and community members were present.
The situation ultimately required a dramatically larger law enforcement response, with WRAL reporting approximately 50 officers on scene.
That raises an important question:
Were the foreseeable risks associated with one of the area’s largest and most intense rivalry games adequately anticipated by Millbrook and WCPSS leadership?
Serious Questions About Security Screening
Millbrook announced before the Rolesville game that spectators would enter through a designated gate and be screened using metal detectors.
Students subsequently told WRAL that as the crowd became overwhelming, some attendees were allowed inside without individually passing through the metal detector. Follow up reporting also documented concerns that spectators jumped a fence and bypassed screening.
Security questions continued at Millbrook’s very next football game.
When Millbrook traveled to Leesville Road the following week, WRAL reported that spectators entering the game did not pass through metal detectors, although law enforcement officers were present and WCPSS’s clear bag policy remained in effect.
This raises a broader question for WCPSS:
After a rivalry game involving widespread fighting, an emergency evacuation, rumors of a firearm, and suspension of the game, why was there not an immediately recognizable and consistent enhanced security protocol for Millbrook’s next football game?
Concerns Extend Beyond One Game
Members of the Leesville Road football community have also raised concerns regarding an incident following a 2025 Millbrook vs. Leesville Road JV football game.
According to eyewitness accounts that should be investigated by WCPSS, Millbrook players heckled and confronted Leesville players as the visiting team attempted to leave the stadium. Millbrook players were also alleged to have shoved spectators who were exiting.
Witnesses have questioned whether Millbrook coaches made adequate efforts to immediately de escalate the situation and control their players.
We ask WCPSS to investigate these accounts, including any available video, school reports, communications, witness statements, and disciplinary records.
Social Media and the Millbrook vs. Rolesville Rivalry
Additional concerns have been raised regarding threatening or inflammatory social media activity involving individuals associated with the Millbrook football program, including players and coaching personnel.
A significant portion of these concerns has surrounded the increasingly heated rivalry with Rolesville High School, including social media activity before rivalry games that parents believe may contribute to hostility and escalation between the programs.
Given the serious disturbances that ultimately occurred at the September 25 Millbrook vs. Rolesville game, WCPSS should determine whether online conduct by players or coaching personnel contributed to an environment in which tensions were encouraged rather than de escalated.
We are not asking the public to accept these allegations as established fact.
We are asking WCPSS to investigate them.
Relevant social media material should be preserved and reviewed to determine whether conduct by any student athlete, coach, employee, or individual acting in an official capacity violated WCPSS, NCHSAA, school, or athletic program standards.
Millbrook’s Own Standards
Millbrook Football’s published Code of Conduct expects participants to behave courteously toward visitors and opponents and describes a zero tolerance policy for actions jeopardizing anyone’s safety.
Parents should be able to expect those standards to be enforced.
Players must be accountable for their conduct, but accountability cannot stop with teenagers.
The adults entrusted with coaching, supervising, and developing these young men must model and enforce those standards themselves.
A Broader Security History
These concerns exist against a documented history of serious security incidents at Millbrook.
In February 2023, a juvenile brought a loaded AR 15 into a basketball game at Millbrook High School.
The incident was followed by strengthened security procedures for athletic events and preceded WCPSS’s implementation of a districtwide clear bag policy.
In February 2026, Millbrook entered a Code Red lockdown after police found a Millbrook senior with a loaded handgun on campus. News reports identified the student as a member of the Millbrook football team.
The following day, another threat circulated through social media and text messages, resulting in increased security while authorities investigated.
Going further back, a gun and ammunition were recovered from students at Millbrook in 2017.
We are not suggesting that these incidents are connected.
We are saying that collectively they demonstrate why concerns involving security, supervision, weapons prevention, and behavioral expectations at Millbrook deserve serious attention.
Accountability Starts With Adult Leadership
High school coaches do more than teach football.
They establish expectations. They influence culture. They determine what behavior is tolerated. They teach young men how to compete intensely without threatening, intimidating, fighting, or endangering others.
When concerns about behavior become recurring, WCPSS must examine not only individual students but also the adult leadership and culture surrounding the program.
Responsibility for addressing these concerns extends through the leadership responsible for Millbrook High School:
Monica Sawyer, Principal, Millbrook Magnet High School
Chris McCabe, Northern Area Superintendent
Dr. Robert P. Taylor, Superintendent, Wake County Public School System
Wake County Board of Education
What We Are Asking WCPSS to Do
Temporarily relocate Millbrook home football games to alternative WCPSS approved venues until this investigation is completed and WCPSS determines that adequate security, screening, crowd control, and emergency evacuation procedures are in place at Millbrook.
Conduct an independent review of the September 25 Millbrook vs. Rolesville game, including security planning, law enforcement staffing, entrance screening, crowd control, emergency exits, and evacuation procedures.
Investigate the reported 2025 Millbrook vs. Leesville JV postgame confrontation, including allegations involving player behavior and the adequacy of coaching supervision.
Review relevant social media activity involving Millbrook football players and coaching personnel, particularly communications surrounding rivalry games that could reasonably be interpreted as threatening opponents, encouraging confrontation, or escalating tensions.
Review the leadership and culture of the Millbrook football program, including whether coaches consistently enforce WCPSS, NCHSAA, and Millbrook Football conduct expectations and appropriately intervene when players engage in threatening, intimidating, or aggressive behavior.
Develop a written corrective action and game security plan addressing law enforcement staffing, weapons screening, spectator separation, emergency exits, evacuation procedures, and enhanced requirements for rivalry and high attendance games.
Take appropriate disciplinary or personnel action when warranted if the investigation substantiates misconduct by students, coaches, staff, or others acting on behalf of the program.
Provide a public response from WCPSS explaining what corrective actions will be implemented to protect home and visiting athletes, students, parents, and spectators.
This Is About Prevention
This petition is not an attack on Millbrook High School, its students, its athletes, or its families.
It is about preventing the next incident.
Parents should not have to wait until someone is seriously injured before reasonable questions about supervision, security, program culture, and accountability are answered.
The September 25 Millbrook vs. Rolesville game was a warning that should not be ignored.
Thousands of people attended a high school football game. Multiple fights erupted. The stands had to be evacuated. The teams resumed play without spectators. Disturbances continued outside the stadium. Authorities stopped the competition again before overtime could begin.
The game could not even be completed.
WCPSS now has an opportunity and an obligation to determine what went wrong, determine whether broader security, supervisory, or cultural problems contributed to the situation, and establish safeguards before another student, athlete, parent, or visiting family is placed at unnecessary risk.
We ask Superintendent Dr. Robert P. Taylor, Northern Area Superintendent Chris McCabe, Principal Monica Sawyer, and the Wake County Board of Education to take immediate action.
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on October 3, 2026