<p>You have absolutely hit the nail on the head. It’s sending a message to the freshman: “Hey, if you keep your GPA and get into a good school, you will be able to get away with breaking rules that two decades of students have successfully abided by and adhered to.” That’s definitely an exaggeration, but I’m sure that the impression made on the freshman in the program will be something similar to that as it will be described to them by their peers, not by the school faculty or program advisors.</p>
<p>I think not reporting suspensions on college applications, as required by common applicaiton, may result in the school’s credibility being questioned. Once this gets out, and it likely will, parents in neighboring districts may complain to colleges that XYZ district lies on applications. Isnt that what we are talking about? Maybe I misunderstand.</p>
<p>I assume local police department was the police at the locality where the drinking occurred. I think the biggest problem here is that the school made a threat they weren’t prepared to carry out. I remember making that mistake as a parent a few times. It’s never a good idea.</p>
<p>When my kids have gone on trips like this, the parents and kids have signed a “contract” that if the kids are caught drinking or using drugs, then the kids will be sent home early at the parents’ expense. I’m not sure how legally enforceable that is, but at least it sets the expectations right. As mentioned earlier, the school has just let everyone know that they will enforce this rule unless it is inconvenient or uncomfortable or they just don’t want to let a little underage drinking affect the competition. Not a good message, and others affected have good reason to be upset. </p>
<p>Having good reason to be upset doesn’t mean you can do anything at all useful about this incident, but you can use it as a lesson for what kind of adult you choose to be.</p>
<p>Same at our school, and I would imagine this is pretty common. Now it makes me wonder how many schools would be willing to enforce it.</p>
<p>From what I’ve heard, our students have taken this threat seriously, even the party students, so I think our school would enforce it. However, I’ve never heard of anyone getting sent back, so it does make me wonder.</p>
<p>Schools are very reluctant to enforce threatened punishments which will have a lifetime impact on the student ( eg getting a college admission revoked.) One) they think that punishment is too harsh and 2) they fear being sued by parents. The school will think at least they did some suspension and hope that sends the message. Of course if adequate is debateable.</p>
<p>At my kids´ballet summer intensive, they have a clause where if a student were to get caught drinking alcohol or doing drugs, they would be sent home immediately and it would be at the guardian´s expense. At one of SI, they actually sent an instructor´s son home because he was caught with pot. There is no reason why OP´s school couldn´t have done the same. Those kids are all of age that they could fly alone.</p>
<p>I am sure if the school should have such a strict rule, especially if the drinking age in Europe is different, but they are certainly within their rights to set any rules they want, but they should be prepared to execute the consequence.</p>
<p>These “zero-tolerance” policies are almost always a mistake, and wind up resulting in either draconian punishments or lax, discretionary enforcement, or (what is probably most common) both. The main goal of the school is to educate kids, give them opportunities to challenge themselves, and set them up to go to good colleges, and it looks like the school is succeeding admirably on that mission. Why should keeping them from drinking alcohol be given superseding weight?</p>
<p>A few years ago, the school my kids used to attend had exactly this problem. Its handbook said clearly that any student caught using drugs on school property, at a school function, or on a school trip, would be immediately suspended for the remainder of the semester. Then ten seniors on a Spring Break school trip out of the country were caught in one’s hotel room with a joint. The week most RD college decisions were coming out, and about seven weeks short of the end of classes for them. Enforcing the policy would have meant that none of them graduated. As in this case, the school opted to give them all relatively short suspensions (one week), and it immediately notified all of the colleges that had accepted them. Two colleges did, in fact, revoke acceptances (one, hilariously, a place where smoking marijuana is so universal it might as well be required). One of them revoked its brand-new RD acceptances but not an EA acceptance it had issued months before, causing the kid to withdraw all his other applications; that kid, however, was required to wait a semester to start college. Most of the colleges didn’t care.</p>
<p>There was lots of smirking about the school’s failure to follow its own absolutely unambiguous rule, but I don’t think anyone believed that the kids had really been punished too leniently, or that keeping them from graduating was appropriate.</p>
<p>I’d hate to see one mistake take away from four years of hard work in high school. Young people make mistakes. Perhaps the school should have sent them home at their own expense. Several years ago a local high school did do this. However, I think people should trust that the administration made the right decision based upon the information accessible to them and their experience in general. My son is a college senior and he would not be upset by the somewhat lenient punishment given to peers. He is also not envious of peers’ successes. I question the motives of students who were upset that colleges were not notified of the suspension. </p>
<p>I understand that this makes it difficult to enforce the policy in future trips and I don’t have an answer for that other than they may need to take another look at it.</p>
<p>OP - you sound like a very level-headed and bright teenager. Armed with the knowledge you’ve gleaned from the above posts, why don’t you make a social experiment out of becoming the peacemaker in this situation? It would become very educational for you, maybe even others, a great life lesson, and an opportunity to develop some superbly useful skills.</p>
<p>There’s plenty of “bad” that goes on around us - being truly brilliant and content in life entails extracting the potential “good” out of it.</p>
<p>But why? I question why you would question the motives. What do you think the motives are?</p>
<p>Perhaps those students who were upset knew of someone whose suspension WAS reported to colleges and may have had an impact on college admissions decisions. I would not characterize anyone who was in that position as “envious”, but simply as unhappy that some students were receiving favored treatment.</p>
<p>“The rules are made to be broken”, as it was often said. The teacher responsible for the team should have take an action, may not be as drastic as sending the kid home. However, a slap on the hand is in order. At times, people can get away with doing certain things. Heck, some folks were even get away with murder. However, if the kid who violated the rule continues on the path of nonconformance, one of these days, the reality with catch up with him/her. Life always finds its way to right the wrongs of the past.</p>
<p>I can see how it could be a problem if the other students knew of a suspension that WAS reported. However, the circumstanes for that incident would be entirely different, I don’t believe a suspension was one of the specified punishments for drinking in Europe and perhaps the students would have abided by the rules if it was. </p>
<p>The reason I question the motives is that 5 students were involved, not the one accepted to the elite school. However, the focus of discontent seems to dwell on the one student.</p>
<p>“…the other students are convinced that the punishment is a “pathetic” way to ensure that he doesn’t get rescinded.” </p>
<p>I’m not picking on the original poster who seems to want look at all points of views. I do think they should move on and enjoy their senior year.</p>
<p>The punishment fit the crime. In a few months they will doing the same thing with friends from great families all over the country and nobody will say Boo about it. Typical teen behavior testing the rules.
My co-worker had her son sent home right away from Japan on a similar trip for the same reason. He’s now a fine adult doing quite well. Minor mistake and totally within normal “bad” behavior for teen males with any spirit.</p>
<p>Our band program would send kids home from band trips if they were caught in the hotel room of members of the opposite sex. All it takes to get the point across to students is to enforce it once. One kid got sent home from a band trip to HI for having a girl in his room. Another got sent home for throwing stuff off the balcony (What were you thinking?!!!).</p>
<p>Of course, we’re talking about plane fare from HI to CA, which is a lot cheaper than a plane ticket from Europe…</p>
<p>No school consequences–all punishments kept within the organization.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am assuming that the students were of drinking age in the country they were in (as the drinking age is much lower in most of Europe). </p></li>
<li><p>Were the students under 18 when they signed the “contract”? If so, the “contract” may not be a legally enforcable document. </p></li>
<li><p>Which takes precidence here, the laws of the country they were in or the “contract” that was signed to go the trip? </p></li>
<li><p>What was the potential liability issues with the school sending the students back? Would an adult have to accompany them as they were on a school trip and under the school’s care? Were there enough adults on the trip to allow for some to leave early with those students and still provide adequate supervison to the remaining students? </p></li>
<li><p>If an adult were to have accompany the drinking students back, would that have not effectively punished the adult who (I am assuming) went on the trip to accompany their child?</p></li>
<li><p>Did the students “just have a drink” or did they get drunk? Just me, but I would say that experimenting and having a drink is not necessariably “irresponsible” but getting drunk is (I am going with the law of the country arguement). </p></li>
<li><p>What is the school going to do on future trips?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What will happen is that on future trips kids will drink because it is now well known that the consequences this time were negligible. And if the consequences next time are severe, then the parents will be outraged because their kids were treated more harshly than others in the same circumstances. Expect lawsuits. Or maybe the kids will drink and get in major trouble - alcohol poisoning, arrest, whatever. And the parents will be outraged because their kids were not properly supervised. Expect lawsuits.</p>
<p>You can’t avoid lawsuits entirely, some people just like to get outraged and sue. But it seems that stating very clear and strict rules that you have no intention to enforce is just asking for trouble, and not very smart.</p>
<p>The school should have enforced the consequences they put down in the contract. As others have said, if they did that with the first incidence, there would not have been four other incidences. They didn’t do that, so there was then no respect for the rules. Suspending them for a couple of days after the fact, especially in the spring of their senior year, seems like a pointless thing to do. The kids probably thought it was a welcome vacation, especially as they are already accepted to college. </p>
<p>But telling the college that accepted them is equally pointless and probably needlessly punitive. The kids broke a promise they made to their own school, they didn’t necessarily break the law. They did not cause others to be injured or do irreparable harm to themselves or property. They should be punished in keeping with the rules of their school, but I see no point in bringing the college into this. I can see why other kids were resentful, kids usually are when they see others breaking the rules and getting away with it and even getting rewarded (great college acceptance, etc). But they should be angry at their school for not enforcing its own rules, not at the kids for testing them.</p>