<p>Something like this happened at Happykid’s HS, and it was the end of international trips.</p>
<p>But honestly, speaking as an adult here, IF you want the kids to stay out of this kind of trouble you have to have them constantly within arms reach of an adult who wants them to stay out of this kind of trouble. This means more adults have to be in the party, they have to be stone-cold sober all the time themselves, and they have to be people that the kids respect completely. Finding (and paying for) this kind of supervision would be almost impossible.</p>
<p>There is a big disconnect here between what the administrators SAID were the terms of participation and what they actually did. That occurs when administrators are faced with implementing rules that sound good in principle but in practice are too harsh to be applied reasonably. </p>
<p>We had a similar occurrence in our local high school. A huge party of kids from our Town that occurred in an adjacent Town was busted by the Police from that Town for underage kkids drinking alcohol. The names of the students were forwarded to the Police Chief in our Town. That list included a signficant number of male and female athletes who, by the terms of their agreement for sports particpation, would be kicked off their teams if they were present where alcohol was being consumed or consumed it themselves. Neither the School Committee nor the Superintendent nor the High School Prinicpal requested the names, and our Police Chief did not forward the list, either.</p>
<p>That precipitated a healthy discussion by the School Committee about changing the policy so that the admionstrators could make a judgement call to determine a punishment that fit a crime, and not have an automatic and overly harsh “one strike and you’re out” policy.</p>
<p>My view is that the agreement for the trip was flawed. Yes, it was the rule, but as it turned out the administrsators showed by their action that it was an unreasonable rule. </p>
<p>Ideally the next step for your Town would be to have a public discussion of what kinds of implementable rules they want to have going forward that takes into account the situation (e.g., in France it is legal to drink at 16 so if it occurred in that country no law was broken.) </p>
<p>Perhaps getting parents’ help to approach a school committee member who also feels that what was done by the School deserves some duiscussion was unfair could lead to a public discussion where the topic would be reducing the disconect between what they do and what the policy says may help. That is the real topic here: bringing policy and practice closer together.</p>
<p>See, but I don’t think that sending kids home from a trip for drinking is unnecessarily punitive. If they were caught drinking on school property, they would be suspended at the least. When you’re travelling in a foreign country with a group of teenagers, you have to be able to trust them. No matter how many chaperones there are, you can’t be watching them all the time. And if you can’t trust them not to drink, what else can you not trust them to do? If the kids know the consequences in advance and they choose to flaunt the rules anyway, then they have to deal with the fall out. For every school trip I have ever been on or participated in prior to college, the rules have been that if you break one of the rules, you get sent home, AND you get sent home at the parents’ expense. The thought of my parents’ faces knowing that I would have to be sent home at their expense, and they’d be waiting to pick me up at the airport, was more than enough to keep me and most of my peers in line. and the ones that didn’t, got sent home.</p>
<p>At our high school, the rules are clear and are enforced: drinking is a violation of the athletic code and the activities code and results in a suspension from the sport or activity. Drinking or engaging in other prohibited behavior while on a school trip results in the student being sent home at the parents’ expense. The parents are required to agree to this by signing a document before the students are allowed to participate.</p>
<p>My older one (at 16) traveled with me to provide tsunami relief in south India, including digging dead bodies out of schools, etc. She then went back the following summer to document the work, and traveled by herself to Cambodia and Thailand to witness trauma relief efforts.</p>
<p>My older one, at 18, traveled by herself to Amman, Jordan to work with Iraqi refugees who are essentially trapped there, then to rural South India, where she taught and worked on housing efforts, and then traveled across the country. In neither case did we think even for a second about their ability to act responsibility.</p>
<p>I believe the schools as a whole infantilize children, and then we are surprised when their actions reflect it?</p>
<p>Kids drinking who get caught in our town get suspended from school activies for the balance of the semester…the school play, the band concert, the choir concert, the athletic games, everything. Every year kids get an MIP and the school doesn’t hear about it because the police don’t automatically report it especially for families that hire an attorney to deal with the charges (which in our state are pretty harsh.) Like I said, I’m hard pressed to imagine a school purchasing last minute one way flights from Europe for kids caught drinking (probably legally) in a foreign country. I can see them arriving home and finding themselves suspended in one form or another. Megdog, do you know of any parent that paid the tab to bring their kid home from a foreign country? Does anyone know of a public school that paid for a last minute one-way ticket home? How does the school “collect” on that cost…sure parents sign these types of forms all the time. The issue is the written threats are not enforceable and these students were punished in a manner that is pretty close to universal in the US for students caught with alcohol in or out of school. They broke the school honor code. The suspension from school seems harsh, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>My daughter said she hasn’t heard of anyone actually getting caught drinking while on a trip; she said she assumes the kids who do drink are smart enough to avoid getting caught. I don’t know if I agree with the stated policy or whether the school would actually follow through, but I’ve been to several parent orientation meetings for trips and the school at least takes this seriously at those meetings.</p>
You know, kids must think that adults are nuts. We act like a teenager drinking is a serious crime, and then we glorify drinking in movies, TV shows, magazines, etc. If you’re worried that they will lose respect for the rules if we don’t enforce them, forget it. They already have no respect for the rules, because we are such huge hypocrites.</p>
<p>When my child was on an official group trip, I remember the contract they had to sign. It stated that anyone who drank or used drugs would be sent home AT THEIR PARENTS’ EXPENSE. We heard that one year, 2 kids actually were sent home. </p>
<p>Shame on the administration for not following through.</p>
<p>They should have sent the kids home. They should not have reported it to the colleges. Anyone who wants a senior in high school to have their entire futures put at risk for drinking a few drinks is extremely vindictive, imho.</p>
<p>Then I guess you would judge all the individuals who agree with the Common App rules that require reporting of this incident to be “extremely vindictive”.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if a school determines that this is not a reportable incident it is a reportable incident. The school has discretion in how it handles violations. I don’t agree that it is ‘up to’ the common app, really, to determine what is reportable and what is not.</p>
<p>This was an extra curricular activity. Whether you see it or not, it is not the same as cheating or some sort of major academic violation. Zero-tolerance rules for people who are still missing a large part of the front of their brain are not a good idea. The school, the adults at the school, do not want to impact these kids futures for a stupid mistake. I happen to agree.</p>
<p>Athletes at our school sign an abstenence pledge but one that is pretty fair. If caught driniking or using drugs, on or off school property, there is some type of school suspension and missing of games. The policy is written in such a way that administrators can make the punishment fit the crime (i.e., number of days suspended and games missed can vary). Even with that, there are still those kids who keep partying and we had one very gifted athlete who was caught twice - he ended up missing the last half of his junior season and first half of his senior season, a full-year suspension.</p>
<p>@momofthreeboys – I have known schools that have upheld their rules and done exactly what they said they would, they sent the kids home at their parents’ expense. Usually I think they call the parents, tell them they’re sending the kids home, and then figure out the payment from there. These kids have return tickets, so the schools work with their travel agent to change the date and charge the change fee and difference in fare to the parents. I think in the cases that I know of, the parents were asked to provide a credit card number to the travel agent and pay for it directly, though I guess the school could also have the travel agent bill them later. </p>
<p>A parent could probably refuse to pay the cost, but I think that would be a pretty unlikely scenario (in the case of extreme financial hardship, the school would probably figure something out for that parent. that wasn’t the case in the situations I am familiar with), and while yes, the contracts are not legally binding documents, I don’t think any court or judge would be sympathetic to the parent’s case if the school decided to press for payment.</p>
<p>From the common app Secondary School Report: Has the applicant ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at your school from 9th grade forward, whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in the applicants probation, suspension, removal, dismissal, or expulsion from your institution?</p>
<p>I don’t see the discretion here. But then, I think that relates back to the OP where the school seems to be playing fast and loose with the rules. And that is the crux of the problem, IMO.</p>
<p>In fairness to the student offenders, the punishment in the contract was to be sent home and to be "kicked out’ of the extra-curricular activity. It wasn’t suspension so the school probably decided to not notify colleges. They probably should have sent them home. As others said, perhaps they let them stay to compete and help the school/team.</p>
<p>Also, if my child was going on the trip, and we signed this contract, I would take it very seriously and warn, threaten,… my son to not do anything stupid. I would also make him pay back the extra expense from his wages or by doing work around my house.</p>