At the board meeting last night, only 4 kids and their parents showed up. That would be 4 out of 37. Sigh.
The teachers showed up with the permission slips signed by the parents allowing the teachers to take the kids on the overnight field trip. They thought that would possibly free them from any liability.
One board member told the crazy teacher that a signed permission slip does not give a teacher the right to commit a negligent act. He told her that she was aware that teachers should not intentionally expose students to known dangers or even to situations where there is a strong possibility of injury. Lack of adult supervision falls under the category of "known danger" and may fall into the category of "strong possibility of injury" as well.
Another member agreed with him and added that MORE supervision was required on field trips than in the classroom. He said if there were not enought adults attending, then the trip should have been cancelled.
The crazy teacher told the board that we agreed to be team parents and chaperones and that including US, there were enough adults present on the trip for it to be safe for all of the kids.
The board asked her to produce signed documents stating that we had agreed to go as team parents or chaperones. She said she didn't bring that particular document with her. She did have the other signed documents for the 3 adults that did chaperone.
The board member told her that signing a document stating that we wanted to be team parents or chaperones was completely different than having the responsibility shoved down our throats once we had arrived at our destination.
Then he asked us for our hotel receipts, gas tickets, food purchases etc. He also asked the other team parent there for her receipts as well.
She told them she didn't have any receipts except for food because the school paid her way and that she rode the chartered bus.
He asked the crazy teacher why we had to pay our own way when the others didn't IF we were team parents or chaperones providing she ever produces a document that hubby and I signed.
She said it was because WE wanted a particular type room and that the only room the hotel had to accomodate our "special" needs was on a different floor away from the block of rooms she had reserved and she felt like the school shouldn't have to pay for OUR special needs.
He asked hubby if that statement was true and hubby said that it was not. Hubby told them that the reason we paid our own way was because we went as spectators. We wanted to watch our son perform and go to the awards ceremony. Truth be told, we really went to see if it was safe to send our son off on these trips.
As for the room, she had already tried to move our room but the hotel wouldn't allow that. She did end up moving those 5 boys next door to us but requested that the rooms be adjoining. They were not.
We never agreed to be team parents or chaperones. We did end up doing it because it proved to be necessary when the crazy teacher moved a group of 5 boys next door to us and told us to "watch that they don't do anything inappropriate". Our son was in that room. Of course, we watched them. We had no choice. We had to make sure our son was safe since his teacher was not.
Another board member said "something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Hubby agreed with him. He told the board that she couldn't produce a signed document stating we were team parents or chaperones because it did not exist.
The principal told them she'd talked by phone to the chartered bus driver. She told them that he said the crazy teacher had told him to "kinda watch the boys in the room next to yours".
The principal said there was no signed document stating he was a team parent or chaperone either.
The board came to the conclusion that the teachers (all of them) were negligent. He also admonished the principal because she didn't follow up by calling the adults listed to make sure they were indeed team parents or chaperones. They said she should have made sure there were signed documents for each adult participating and confirmed them before she ever allowed the trip. She agreed with them.
They apologized to the parents who were in attendance. They told us that they were sure that the teachers didn't do this intentionally. They don't think the teachers set out to put our children in the line of fire for danger or injury but unfortunately the factors were all there.
Then they apologized to hubby and me for having something like that dumped in our laps. They praised us for going the extra mile and taking on reponsibilities that we had not planned on. They offered to reimburse us for the money we spent on the trip. We declined and told them it was never about the money. It was about the safety of the kids.
As it stands now, no more overnight field trips unless there is an adult for every 3 children. There must be an adult with these kids at all times. The adult will sleep in the room with the kids. The adults names will be submitted to the board along with their signed document agreeing to be a chaperone or team parent. The principal has to follow up by phoning and confirming that the adults will be chaperoning. The board will then follow up with another phone call to confirm again.
The only rule that changed was that now the board will re-confirm. Everything else was already a rule that got ignored.
They excused the parents to leave so that they could adjourn their meeting. I don't know how they plan on dealing with the teachers that let the ball drop. We weren't allowed to stay for that. Maybe that's a good thing.
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