<p>Warning? Disrespectful kids? Typical teens? Seriously? They were warned…by the flight attendants. Standing in aisles? Did their parents teach them nothing about manners?</p>
<p>These “kids” should be forced (because no one has ever, it seems, tried to teach manners) to write notes of apology to all on board. By hand…to all of those who were affected by a late plane. And then to the adults who said it wasn’t “that bad”, a summer school class about behavior (theirs and the kids).</p>
<p>I personally know the school and the kids (The school is like 5 min away from me) and I can imagine that the kids were probably not complying. I can also say that there was definitely at least 10 chaperones. All in all the kids were probably behaving bad but not bad enough to warrant the entire group getting kicked off. The kids who were making trouble should have been kicked off.People should not be collectively punished.</p>
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<p>no it’s the fault of the kids. Why pass the blame? If the Captain makes an order, everyone had better follow. He/She is in charge of the plane.</p>
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<p>Hopefully by now she’s figured that out. Geez.</p>
<p>If I was stuck next to a person like that, I’d go nuts. And that type rarely responds to polite requests to tone it down. They are entitled and clueless.</p>
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<p>Yeah, that behavior wouldn’t fly on El Al. No pun intended.</p>
<p>The school rabbi made the decision to keep the group together, thus all the students deplaned. He could not leave just the punished students at La Guardia Airport by themselves and continue to Atlanta with the rest of the group.</p>
<p>If there were indeed 8 chaperones, why in heavens did they not nip the problems in the bud? Did they really believe they (students and adults) were somehow immune to the federal TSA laws?</p>
<p>All I can say is that there were some pretty rude Orthodox Jews on the El Al flights that I’ve taken, who embodied the pushy-Jew stereotypes. Don’t make people into saints just because they are religious.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I learned that lesson at my Southern Baptist church after I finally became an adolescent. The stories I could tell…:eek:</p>
<p>I should add that most of the members there were very lovely yet fallible people. But there were a few that sure put on a good show of the perfect Christian, all the while not exactly walking the walk.</p>
<p>Re insufficient warnings – As I understand it, the captain has absolute authority on his plane. He does not owe any passenger a warning, although it sounds like he gave several in this case.</p>
<p>Just returned from chaperoning a student trip to Europe - it never occurred to me to give the kids lessons on manners because they were pretty much already sensitive to it. But had something occurred on the flight, I know I would have been on top of it if it had been in my area of the cabin … the chaperones should have been dispersed among the group.</p>
<p>I agree with others who think the chaperones dropped the ball. </p>
<p>This incident reminds me of a very cringe-worthy event in my own youth. A small group of honor students, including myself, were semi-finalists in a scholarship competition. This event involved a competition in the morning, followed by an afternoon break, then a dinner/awards banquet. Somehow it was arranged for our group to be taken to a very posh and stately Beverly Hills hotel for the afternoon. The plan was for us to swim and relax, and prepare for the banquet. </p>
<p>I don’t know where the chaperones went (probably doing some tourist things), but we were left alone and unsupervised. We were VERY good kids. Serious, nerdy, and always well-behaved. I’m sure the chaperones didn’t give a second thought to leaving us alone, because of who we were.</p>
<p>Oh my. I don’t remember how it started, but I DO remember having a ball sliding down polished bannisters, laughing, screaming, and overall cutting loose in a very inappropriate way. At the time, it never occurred to us that we were out of bounds. But behavior like ours should have gotten us sent home.</p>
<p>I’ve looked back on that day and wondered what in the world got into me. The best answer I can come up with is, I was 16/17 years old letting off a lot of steam, and my brain took a vacation. </p>
<p>I don’t blame the chaperones for my bad behavior. But this is exactly why teenagers need chaperones. When they get excited, they simply stop thinking. They need adults around to tell them to calm down, sit down, and behave. And this is precisely where the chaperones on the plane dropped the ball.</p>
<p>On a recent flight I sat by some high school students from a small town near me ( recognized their gear) traveling to a distant state for an event. They commented before boarding about not being sure where the coach was…maybe he was already on the plane…
They boys put away their cell phones during take -off but were busy trying to text parents and friends during the flight. The idea of “airline mode” for your device was totally foreign.
Ok, dumb kids on their first flights… The 30 something young man seated next to me was interested in my home city. He and his wife are relocating, he’s a Dr, she’s a computer engineer, no kids yet but looking for good school district. I’m a teacher in a district they would consider a target. He did not quit using his phone for the entire flight, descent and landing. Held it at his side and was not noticible but just as bad as the kids.
Would you have called the FA and raised a fuss? We have farmer boys on one side texting and young Dr on the other side texting.
Fortunately we landed safely and we didn’t have to deal with distracted people in a crash!.</p>
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<p>True, the full stories in these kinds of cases often are not be as clear cut as they first seem, but in this case I can’t think of what possible advantage it would be to the airline or captain to kick the kids off without proper justification. It is a huge hassle for airline to kick two thirds of the passengers off a flight. And a potential PR might nightmare too if public opinion comes down against them. That’s what makes me think it must have been pretty much an open and shut case in the judgment of the captain.</p>
<p>Given all that, I’m not sure what sort of additional facts could come out that would exonerate the kids and turn the captain into a villain.</p>
<p>Dragonmom, I think I would have discretely spoken with the FA but not necessarily called them to my seat and I would have asked them to make an announcement again about turning off all electronic devices.
The lack of common courtesy and cellphone use is being epic… think about how many people continue to text or use their phones during movies? I have asked people to shut off their phones… and if you are train or bus commuter you know what it is like. You are subjected to hearing people speaking very loudly from the minute they sit down to the minute they reach their destination about all kinds of personal situations. I once sat next to a man on my commuter train who was speaking to someone he had interviewed and was presumably about to hire about their salary and benefits and suggesting how they might plan to give notice at their present position at his competitor. He could easily have identified his company and his competitor and exposed this person’s identity to all. </p>
<p>I also sat next to someone on the train who was dealing with an unhappy customer. I don’t remember all the details but he told the customer that he was literally faxing them corrected information as we were speaking which since he was reading the sports section of the paper he clearly was not doing. </p>
<p>Then there was the guy who held the entire train car in thrall while he had an escalating phone conversation to heated argument with Delta about his entire vacation being ruined and how that it was unacceptable as Delta cancelled his flight for his entire family of 10 people and re-routed them so that they could not meet and travel together to Montego Bay over Christmas.</p>
<p>And so on and so on… thank goodness on my commuter train, we now have one cell-free car on both the AM and PM commute.</p>
<p>kids and texting is out of control…6 AM…who do they need to text so badly? Sit your butts in the seat and put the darn phones away.</p>
<p>I think the real problem is that you are reading Fox. Not good. About the teens, good they got kicked of the flight. Don’t wanna listen to the captain? Get swift justice!</p>
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<p>There is a psychological disorder for this behavior and it is called FOMO.
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<p>[No</a> More FOMO: Fear of Missing Out Linked to Dissatisfaction](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/no-more-fomo-fear-missing-linked-dissatisfaction-181941276.html]No”>No More FOMO: Fear of Missing Out Linked to Dissatisfaction)</p>
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<p>No idea, but from what I’ve seen of kids and their phones, I would guess they were texting their friends 4 rows up.</p>
<p>I wasn’t there, but if the students were disregarding the airline rules, then the statement that they were targeted because they were Jewish was out of line (and I am Jewish ). It’s the behavior that was targeted. Manners apply to everyone.</p>
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<p>Actually, the blame lays with BOTH. The kids for not following repeated instructions from flight crew and the chaperones for clearly failing to do their jobs. Onus is slightly greater for the chaperones on the same principle that supervisors/bosses are responsible for the actions of employees under their supervision. In this case…they also bear greater responsibility because they’re supposed to act in a parental supervisory role for high school students.</p>
<p>Not to say I am letting the HS kids off the hook. I am extremely disappointed not only in their behavior, but also in how the school admins and some parents are defending those kids’ behavior. </p>
<p>Back when I was a kid in the '80s, such behavior would not only have met with firm discipline from adults involved, most private religious schools would have seriously expelled such students. I’ve seen elementary school classmates being expelled for far less back then…</p>
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Yes sosomenza. All true. But these students are aware of the difference between flying Airtran and El Al. Seriously. Stop.</p>