<p>Isn’t it a routine that airline crew go around after the turn your phone off announcement making sure everyone has their seat belt on, tray up, phone off? One would think the crew talk to kids in person.</p>
<p>“Isn’t it a routine that airline crew go around after the turn your phone off announcement making sure everyone has their seat belt on, tray up, phone off?”</p>
<p>Not just a routine, it’s an FAA regulation. So we can be sure it happened, or else there would be complaining that the airline didn’t do their duty.</p>
<p>I was on an international flight once with about 25 kids and 3 chaperones. The chaperones were worse than the kids. Despite repeated requested for them to sit down, they were all sitting on the arm of their seats and chatting to the kids around/behind them. They would sit down and then get back up again. We were already taxiing. Finally, the flight attendant announced that if they did not sit down and buckle their seat belts, we would turn around and go back to the gate. The kids were all embarrassed as heck. I wonder if they were parents of some in the group.</p>
<p>I was once on a flight where a father and his two sons kept unbuckling their seat belts until the flight attendant made them stop. However, seconds after the pilot said “Flight attendants, prepare for landing”, off the seat belts went again. It took Mother Nature and the force of gravity to have the final word: the father bumped his head and almost slid off his seat. Then, and only then, did the seat belts go on to stay. </p>
<p>QLM</p>
<p>We’re taking a similarly sized group to Europe next summer, and I have to say that IME, eight chaperones is in no way enough for 100 high school kids. We’re probably going to have closer to 20.
We’ll be using this incident as a teachable moment with our kids, for what it’s worth. And I expect to have all my group’s cell phones in my pocket before we are even on the plane.</p>
<p>I think it is also appropriate before any group travel of this sort to have a meeting with the kids and their parents - and go over rules and expectations. Even have them sign a behavioral contract if need be - spelling out the consequences for bad behavior - drinking on the trip will result in school suspension, etc. Kids need to understand that there are behavioral standards for restaurants, hotels, planes, etc. No one wants to stay in a hotel with hordes of kids running in the hallways and yelling at 1 am, or causing a ruckus in a restaurant, etc.</p>
<p>If this is an annual trip, perhaps what happened will lead to better planning and preparation in the future, for this school and other groups planning trips. I agree that explicit behavioral contracts and expectations for good behavior and consequences should be discussed before the trip begins.</p>
<p>I don’t condone the behavior or put a time frame on “heat of the moment”. I only meant that one can jump to conclusions under stress and then, with time, and more information, reflect on what happened, and try to make changes in the future.</p>
<p>Going by the Flatbush schools reaction to date, I wouldn’t expect they will change anything because that would be admitting something needed to be changed.</p>
<p>But its pretty standard at all the schools I have been involved with, for students, guardians & chaperones to be well aware of their rights & responsibilities when representing their school.</p>
<p>When our S went on a trip with his HS band, we did have a meeting at the outset–all students and their families. We were all told that any child could be sent home at any time. One year a small group of kids who went to another country where alcohol was legal for them drank beer and were made to leave the private HS for a year. </p>
<p>Have never heard there were any problems with behavior of any of the kids except for the beer drinking (years before my S). Don’t know what the chaperone to student ratio is at the HS our kids attended–never inquired.</p>
<p>Happy to report that I recently flew from ‘across the pond’ back to the East Coast with a large group (50-60 choir members) of high school kids and they were very well behaved! They were excited and energetic while waiting at the gate, but I really didn’t hear from them during the rather long flight! </p>
<p>STILL lots of good kids out there!!</p>
<p>There is no reason chaperones of SENIORS in high school should have to sit spread out among the students… most of them by this time of year are probably 18 years old or close to it, and are certainly old enough to know how to behave on a plane. I would pinch my 18 year old son’s head off if he pulled a stunt like this… in my opinion the chaperones for a trip of young ADULTS are there to make sure no one gets hurt, to coordinate travel plans, etc. not to put them in time out like they are 8 years old. They deserved to be kicked off, and without vouchers!</p>
<p>The full report from the school mentioned upthread is available online at
<a href=“http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1101870006716-249/airtran+pdf+rev.pdf[/url]”>http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1101870006716-249/airtran+pdf+rev.pdf</a></p>
<p>Thanks Slithey. Hope this is the end of the “story”</p>
<p>Why is story in quotes?</p>
<p>100 high school kids getting expelled from a school trip to an amusement park seems like a story to me- especially considering the other people that were inconvenienced.</p>
<p>Wow, very interesting. I wonder about those 50 standby passengers that were able to board after the school group was kicked off. Seems like a red herring, but what incredible mismanagement in booking by Airtran!</p>
<p>Also, when you’re told to turn off all electronic devices, why would anyone think it was OK to put their phone in airplane mode and listen to music? Ipods have to be turned off too.</p>
<p>Just as I thought, the airline or rather one snippy attendant overreacted. The TWO free tickets each is a dead giveaway that the airline was not confident of its position.</p>
<p>greenwich, the rule is that electronic devices must be turned off after the cabin door is closed. Prior to that it’s OK to keep them on. If people were still boarding the plane then the cabin door would still be open. Many passengers used to flying and familiar with the rules would keep their earbuds in. We don’t know if the students who kept their earbuds in were in that category, but if the account is accurate they weren’t breaking the rule. </p>
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<p>Except that apparently 50 standby passengers benefitted from the students being removed from the plane. ;)</p>
<p>So if the school’s account is true, everybody was kicked off the plane for, basically, no reason at all – which would make a number of the posts in this thread look rather overwrought in retrospect, given all the harsh condemnations of the students’ presumed bad behavior. I wonder if we’ll ever hear the flight attendant’s or the pilot’s version.</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that the same students have apparently taken many such flights with the school recently, yet still were unsure of what is required for the flight crew to prepare the plane for take off.
Or are we supposed to believe that on their other flights they were not obligated to stay in their seats or put away their electronics, when red quested to do so
</p>
<p>If the flight crew told them to turn off all electronics, they should have turned off all electronics. There’s no way that rows 28 - 31 would know if that door was still open or not and it doesn’t matter anyway since they were told to turn off all electronics. They have no legitimate reason for disobeying.</p>