For parents gathered in gymnasiums around the country to watch their children graduate, there's no place they'd rather be. On the other hand, if the crowded space is not adequately air conditioned and starts smelling more like the locker room than the gym, then even proud parents' thoughts start to wander toward questions like, "How long until we can finish this up and go get some dinner?"
That was the situation that Atlanta's Henry McNeal Turner Middle School was trying to avoid in May of 2003, as the staff prepared for the school's graduation ceremony.