Posted on 02/24/2005 7:56:16 AM PST by SmithL
A parent chaperon is accused of buying alcohol for students on a field trip.
Lenoir City Schools Superintendent Wayne Miller, along with police and the District Attorney are investigating the report.
Miller says the incident allegedly happened Saturday night, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Seventeen students and four chaperones from Lenoir City High's Chamber Choir were sightseeing and performing in the city last weekend. They performed in a Baptist Church Sunday.
Miller is still gathering information, but he says it appears a number of students were with a mother, when she stopped at a convenient store and bought the alcohol. He says just three students, including the woman's daughter, later chose to drink it in her presence.
"If a parent had provided my own daughter with alcohol, I would have a serious issue with that," Miller says.
His daughter is involved in the high school choral program, but she wasn't on the trip.
"I have no idea why, no idea why," he reacts. "It's just an example of extremely poor judgment on several people's parts."
Miller says a detailed, itinerary is designed to keep field trips on task. Typically, he trusts parent chaperones to supervise the time in-between scheduled events.
"We don't protect kids from parents, they are our allies," Miller says. "We've always assumed they have the same goals we do, for their children to be as successful as possible and to abide by the rules of school and civil law."
Normally, students caught drinking at school events would see a 365 day suspension because it's a zero tolerance offense.
This time, the consequences, like the circumstances, will likely be different.
Punishment for the parent isn't clear either.
"We're asking the police department to pursue this with all vigor," Miller says of the mother accused. "We'd like to see if there's charges that are able to be filed, that they are filed."
The mother accused has denied her involvement to the school principal.
The superintendent is meeting with all parents to explain what happened and what happens next Thursday at 4:30 p.m. He says counselors will be available.
Miller is also consulting with an attorney about having chaperones sign statements before field trips.
A few years back, a High School from the SF Bay Area took a trip to Germany. Everyone knew the rules. When several students were caught drinking, they were immediately put on a plane for home, and their parents were left messages telling them when to pick them up at the airport. Several parents sued, and not only lost, but had to pay the School District's legal costs of $60,000.
I am not allowed to have an opinion? I just want to preface my opinions with the fact that I learned to think that way from being on FR....that way when someone jumps on my for MY opinion, they will know where I am coming from.
Why do you assume anyone here would be surprised?
I would warrant we wouldn't be surprised.
Yep. I always like that "In School Suspension."
At our school, it was a windowless room with a
supervisor collecting the finished assignments
at the end of the day. Assignments unfinished?
Another day added on with a few more assignments.
The kids sure avoided that place like the plague.
What an idiotic response.
That's my opinion.
And you have the right to it. Why did you feel the need to even respond to my post? I very rarily respond directly to someone's post because it is their opinion and they are entitled to it.
That is my opinion.
Please correct me if i'm wrong.
On a school trip, all kids are beneath the legal age, (the article does not say but I assume 21). The mom is in very deep trouble. A teacher in this situation would be fired for cause. As a teacher on a school trip we found a student smoking marijuana. (In the '79s) We were five hours from home, the parent was called and the kid taken from the trip that night. I don't remember if the school took action later or not.
I don't see that the school needs to involve the legal system, but that seems to be the approach more and more as schools don't want to handle discipline problems themselves. The parents of the kids involved are free to seek damages against the parent, the school certainly can discipline the students involved. I would suggest the penalty be less than a years suspension, as the crime seems to not rise to that level, but these zero tolerance types have to live with their rules.
Well, I have no children, been married 4 years. First marriage for both. Planning on children, but getting prepared first.
So you are wrong on everything.
Would this have been OK, back when it was legal to drink at 18?
Not all women, just those who put their needs ahead of their children, in this case, the need of the mother to be "cool", to be a friend.....I am just past my breaking point with women who sacrifice their children for whatever reason.
But I must keep reminding myself that women hold no blame or responsibility for what happens to their children.
That's why so many kids Turn to marijuana. I was just in Highschool last year,
And marijuana is much too easy to get. That's why so many Highschool kids smoke it, it is much easier to get than alcohol.
You are hereby encouraged to attend an AA meeting. "Drinking beer only" is something you will hear as a failed attempt to control drinking.
If only the store hadn't been so "convenient," none of this would have happened.
Probably beer or wine cooler. Convenient stores don't normally sell hard liquor based on my experience.
It is just about protecting children. I make no apologies for that. Yes, I have a deep resentment for women who do not take care of their children. If we all became fanatics about protecting children, like we have with smoking, this world would be a better place.
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