<p>Stowmom-Our school also used a hired nighttime chaperone for the 10th grade DC trip. Everyone thought it was a great idea until it was discovered that if presented with a bribe, the chaperone would look the other way in the middle of the night! :eek:</p>
<p>^^^I’m sending my D to NYC in a few weeks with the same tour company the school has used in the past. I guess you just have to hope that your kid uses common sense, follows the rules and the chaperones won’t take bribes. The ones we had in the past didn’t seem like the type that would, but who knows.</p>
<p>If I’m a chaperone, I’m expected to stay awake 24 hours a day? Forget that… if that was the expectation I’d never volunteer.</p>
<p>I take a robotics team to tournaments out of town. I’ve never taped a door or searched a suitcase. I go to bed at a reasonable hour, and ask the students to promise to not leave their rooms after that. I know that some teenagers are largely untrustworthy, but I haven’t had any particular problems. Yes, our robotics team is co-ed.</p>
<p>The trips with the door-taping at our school i(junior class trip and band trips)involve several hundred kids (maybe as many as 500 for junior class trip). On other types of trips for much smaller groups, such as Future Problem Solving state championship or Model UN trip to NYC (which is are more analogous to the Robotics team example you give), the chaperones act in the way you describe that you do.</p>
<p>Some kids from our local HS went with their sport team to San Diego for a competition weekend. They snuck out and made a run for the border, hit Tiajuana, got drunk and, shall we say “saw the animal shows” :eek:</p>
<p>I think a school has to get burned before they make assumptions about taping doors shut and it is sad those wild kids cannot be trusted and ruin things for all the good kids. At least those over the top security methods remove the peer pressure for the kids who might follow the leader!</p>
<p>On our orchestra trips, we had a staff member pulling the overnight shift. There was a suggestion that doors be taped but that was almost universally rejected. We made expectations clear up front and the kids rose to the level expected to them. The funny thing is that the biggest fear the adults anticipated, guys trying to go and get alcohol, never materialized. It was the girl-girl drama prompted by some All-Estrogen 24/7 stretches that was the biggest PITA. We did have one girl vomiting in the night…from OD’ing on pastries from Demel’s Bakery in Vienna.</p>
<p>I’m always of two minds on these things. Ideally, I would like to trust the kids to do the right thing. The idea of searching bags and taping doors disturbs me. However … there is definitely a big drinking and drugging culture at our small rural school. These are kids who are partying at home, so the assumption that they would behave while away seems a bit idealistic. Although that is definitely the assumption being taken by the staff.</p>
<p>I know that if a kid is caught drinking on a field trip they have to be sent home immediately, but since this is only a one-night trip, that punishment is not going to work. Kids caught drinking at home – if they are not on a sports team, absolutely nothing is done. </p>
<p>One thing that’s happened here is that because there has been no supervision on this trip for years, the trip has a reputation now. Kids apparently look forward all year to the band trip to NYC to get high. </p>
<p>I appreciate all these examples. I will share them with other parents and the staff.</p>
<p>“Kids apparently look forward all year to the band trip to NYC to get high.”</p>
<p>OK, sly, you just keep making my day. My D is supposed to call tonight. She is only in NYC one more day. (Phew!) Here I thought she was safe because she was with a bunch of (self proclaimed) band geeks from a Catholic school. The only “wild” thing she told me is that there was an “almost naked” cowboy hanging out around Times Square and they took a picture of him with them. I don’t think it was one of the chaperones, but I didn’t ask. :o</p>
<p>The school used a travel company with lots of volunteer parent chaperones.
(4 kids/chaperone). They have about ten minutes of free time the entire week. (That was intentional I’m sure.) I was exhausted just looking at the itinerary</p>
<p>They are having dinner at Ellen’s Stardust Diner tonight, and then off to “Beauty and the Beast.” They saw “Wicked” on Wednesday night. Last night they had a cruise with dinner and DJ. They were pretty much confined to the boat! I told her not to jump off. She didn’t. She sent me a text this morning.</p>
<p>I have to admit that my Ds have attended pretty tame schools
We haven’t had the problems that say= beruahs community schools are having ( of course- they don’t seem to think it is a problem)
BUt I did get my eyes opened when I watched a movie D had wanted me to get for her- John Tucker must die
where 3 girls who had been dating the same boy ( unbeknownst to them) got even
It was the first time I had even heard about taping the doors shut</p>
<p>However- I did hear a funny comment re her school orchestra who travels quite frequently. They were in Japan, apparently at some big event, and American teens are quite a bit more rambunctious than Japanese are used to </p>
<p>The chaperones apparently grew tired of admonishing the kids, and being asked where they were from, so they started telling them they were from San Francisco ( they are from Seattle);)</p>
<p>My kids’ school takes several trips, and has these rules.
No parents on full class trips. The full classes in 6th, 8th, 10th and seniors each take a trip. No parents are allowed to go unless they are teachers (they discourage the teachers from going on their childrens’ trip, the teacher/parents are asked to chaperone another grade, but sometimes the school gets into a bind) or they go as the nurse, which means they have to be an RN, and get expenses paid.</p>
<p>The 8th grade trip (to DC) is traditionally the trip with the most difficulties. The school hires security guards to patrol the halls after 11 pm. If someone sticks a nose outside the door after hours, it must be for the child to summon a teacher, or the room number is taken down. My D’s year, they were so intimidated that when one of the girls in her room became ill, they called the front desk to get referred to the teacher’s room.
After many years, the school learned that this allowed the best security, and gave the teachers an opportunity to get some rest.</p>
<p>Small groups operate as WashDad said, D’s Scholar’s Bowl team was pretty much a small group of adults on a trip, the most excitement they ever had was when the wall mounted hair dryer in the girls’ room caught fire - D swore it wasn’t her. I think some of the smaller sports teams and the strings students work this way.</p>
<p>The band trips involve a few more parents as chaperones, because they are “semi-official”, but typically the parents that are allowed to go, are those who have worked with the band all year, are fairly reliable and know who the troublemakers are.</p>
<p>I remember a big stink a few years back at our high school when after a band trip a boy posted (I don’t know on what…maybe myspace) how many different girls he “did” on the trip. We weren’t involved with band, but I remember that they made big chaperone rule changes after that. Yep, once burned…</p>
<p>I remember our school trip (back in the 70’s) to Mexico, one room of guys had filled up their bathtub with ice and beer. They kept coming to other people’s rooms to take their showers. We were on something like the 10th floor of a Mexico City hotel- there were the days when you could still open your windows in a hotel room. These guys came to our room, asked us if they could use our Mexico City phone book, of course, yes, yes, they grabbed it and left. Next thing you know we get a knock on the door and it’s the police asking us if we could show them our phone book! Apparently these guys had dropped their’s out of their window and almost hit a women walking down the sidewalk and the hotel police had been alerted and they were looking for the culprits. What were these guys thinkin- that we’d take the fall with the Mexican police??
Oh those were the days.</p>
<p>“I remember a big stink a few years back at our high school when after a band trip a boy posted (I don’t know on what…maybe myspace) how many different girls he “did” on the trip.”</p>
<p>Ughhh. Another band trip story? Who knew ? </p>
<p>OK. That’s it, …she’s quitting band…:rolleyes:</p>
<p>^^^LOL. Your daughter is going to take away your computer!!</p>
<p>From the “code of conduct” papers my daughter and I had to sign on every overnight trip she’s taken with dance teams, or other types of trips, I’d guess the parents wouldn’t be able to sue chaperones if their kid didn’t follow the code of conduct rules and did something stupid. I’m surprised anyone expects chaperones to stay up all night on a field trip, especially for high school kids, who should know better. If a kid goes against the rules, just send them home and suspend them. If kids try and sneak out over the chaperone in the middle of the night just call their parents and tell them to come get their darlings, now. If the kids know what to expect I think the vast majority will follow the rules. And those that don’t get to be the examples.</p>
<p>Hey, 1Soccermom
Is this really a picture of your D in New York City ? :eek:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.littleviews.com/LV_art/naked_cowboy_04.jpg[/url]”>http://www.littleviews.com/LV_art/naked_cowboy_04.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.littleviews.com/LV_art/naked_cowboy_04.jpg[/url]](http://www.littleviews.com/LV_art/naked_cowboy_04.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>^ omg. There really is an almost naked cowboy who takes pictures ?? Again, who knew??? Well at least he’s not the chaperone. We don’t have almost naked cowboys running around the streets where we live.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure she’s not in that picture, but I bet it’s the same cowboy! I’ll let you know.</p>
<p>Thanks!!! I am laughing so hard…:D</p>
<p>I guess I’d rather have the almost naked cowboy than what mkm56 and sly mentioned. :eek:</p>
<p>Tonight is the last night…thank goodness!</p>
<p>To my own surprise, I support the philosophy that it is not the chaperone’s job to “parent” your kid at all hours of the night.</p>
<p>I came to this conclusion because of my own experience accompanying my D’s sports team travel. The 11:00 curfew rule is known to all the kids, and if they choose to violate it, then it is their parents’ responsibility. Each child’s parent is welcome to come along, and for those who choose not to, (and in many cases certain parents NEVER take on this responsibility), then I say, well too bad if your kid gets in trouble, you should have come. </p>
<p>Now, if a trip prohibits parents from attending (why would this be?), then obviously the sponsor/chaperones have taken on the parents’ responsibilities and must take action to ensure the students’ safety. I’m not sure I’d permit my kids to attend such a trip.</p>
<p>If this is her with the cowboy, she is definitely quitting band. And she will be quitting the catholic school too. :)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.mccullagh.org/image/10d-13/times-square-naked-cowboy-1.html[/url]”>http://www.mccullagh.org/image/10d-13/times-square-naked-cowboy-1.html</a></p>
<p>So I was freeking out and just told my husband to look at this. He was watching the Red sox. His response: “she better not have paid money for that”. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Nice boots.</p>