[CitizenM]

These trips have, yes I agree, been going on for quite a while. I remember my children wanting to go on them. However, it is not the trip (although I do not agree with going to a foreign country simply because of the possible legal complications as we are now witnessing), but it is the absence of good judgement on the part of the adults with which I find fault. My heart would be aching so badly had anything ever happened to a teen under my care while away from their parents - contract or not. I could not bear it.

I know most of these kids were probably going to go off to college, etc. I know all the arguments about possible danger at home. None of that excuses the fact that these kids should not have been allowed to go out at 1 A.M. with no chaperones, to a bar, and get drunk.

As for our troops - they are trained, armed, protected. They are not unaware of danger, nor are they running around in the middle of the night drinking. They are with others with whom they have a bond -- to make sure all return safely and foolishness is not unobserved and corrected.

[ContemptofCourt]

None of that excuses the fact that these kids should not have been allowed to go out at 1 A.M. with no chaperones, to a bar, and get drunk.

Why not? Were they of the legal age to drink in Aruba?

As for our troops - they are trained, armed, protected. They are not unaware of danger, nor are they running around in the middle of the night drinking.

You have obviously never been in the military.....trained and armed, yes....protected? Not in the sense that you mean. And your last statment is just niave.