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The four women including Giroux — who went despite still recovering from cancer surgery — were scheduled to usher for a performance of The Color Purple. The show started at 2 p.m., but they needed to be there by 12:30 p.m.

“We always are upfront about what we’re doing,” said LaSalle’s Gail Peters, 69, who volunteered for 10 years. “I don’t lie when I go there because that’s their country. They have the absolute power so I am always honest and tell them exactly what we’re doing, volunteer ushering. They’ve never said anything.”

Photo by Dax Melmer / Windsor Star

This time, the officer sent them to secondary inspection and they were ushered inside to the waiting room with about 50 other people. At first, the ladies weren’t overly concerned. They chatted in the waiting room, wondering if they might be a little late.

After being detained for nearly three frustrating hours, Peters said she felt the need to point out that she and her arts-loving friends — who range in age from 67 to 75 — aren’t exactly hardened criminals.

“I pointed that out when I saw they were fingerprinting my friend,” said Peters, also a retired teacher. “I was really upset. I thought what on earth, you know? So when I went up to talk to him. I said, ‘this is very demeaning.’ Here we are in a waiting room with all these people watching us being fingerprinted like we’re criminals. I said we’ve done nothing wrong. We’re not criminals, we’re upstanding citizens. We’re retirees. We’re trying to support the arts and enjoy a play or two in our retirement.”