Rihanna 4 Hours Late to Meet High Schoolers, Kids Call Pop Star 'Rude'

By Christine Thomasos, Christian Post Reporter Monday, March 25, 2013

Rihanna drew the ire of some Chicago high school students and fans after showing up to a charity event over four hours late recently and only staying there for 16 minutes.

The 25-year-old Barbadian pop star was scheduled to perform at Chicago's United Center, but visited the local Barrington High School after the students won a contest she sponsored to highlight their philanthropic work. Rihanna tweeted about her excitement before meeting the students at the high school.

"On my way to Barrington High School in Chicago!" she tweeted Friday. "I can't wait to meet these kids man! They're major inspirational life changers."

However, Rihanna was over four hours late to meet the Chicago high school students who spoke out about the incident in the publication, The Chicago Tribune reported. Patricia Halle, a Barrington High School junior, called Rihanna's behavior rude.

"It's one thing to be fashionably late. This is just rude. Our lives don't revolve around a pop star," Halle told The Tribune. "Our school worked hard to win this. She should be more respectful."

Jaki Mora, a local seventh grade student who had been waiting to meet Rihanna at Barrington High School for hours, called the pop star pathetic.

"Rihanna is pathetic," Mora told The Chicago Tribune. "She shouldn't be making us wait for her."

After hearing about Rihanna's tardy appearance, some people took to Twitter to criticize the singer despite the fact that they were not in attendance at the high school.

"I don't understand why it's ok for Rihanna to be 3-5 hours late to a concert for school kids and not be criticized," one person tweeted.

Rihanna tweeted about her issues with Chicago traffic prior to arriving at the school late.

"This Chicago traffic is not working," the singer tweeted three hours after she was scheduled to arrive at the high school.

Principal Steve McWilliams of Barrington High School said he was in contact with Rihanna when she was tardy and that the singer offered him additional tickets to give to his students.