Chaperoning My Kids Band Trip! Tell Me the GOOD, BAD and the UGLY!

[allicat1214]

I've been to WDW many times with my own family so I signed up to chaperone my 7th grade DD's band trip 4/24-28. This is for a middle school band, 7th & 8th graders.

I have since learned that one of the duties of a chaperone is to take a 1.5-3 hour "shift" of sitting in the hall overnight (just one of the four nights) in case any student needs help during the night!!!!!!!!!!!! (We're staying at port orleans and from what I can see, there aren't interior corridor rooms!) The thought was that the trip organizers didn't want kids to have to walk far if they have a problem during the night.......

How did you guys handle this?

I was the only parent who spoke up at our last meeting, but since then others have addressed concerns to me. We have another meeting this week, so any advice would be helpful!

Thanks!

 

[Aliceacc]

My guess is that they wanted to be PC with the phrasing.

They're not concerned that the kids will need help; after all, there's a phone in every room. I'm guessing they're concerned that the kids will leave the rooms after curfew and get into trouble.

One thing my school does during Grad nights is this: they let the kids know they'll be "taped" into their rooms. A piece of masking tape (color unknown to the kids; I don't know whether they change it from one night to the next) is placed over each door once the kids are in for the night. In the morning, your chaperones come by to untape the door and let you out. If your door is untaped, you have some serious explaining to do. Yet the doors can still be opened in the event of an emergency.

It's certainly not foolproof, since kids from another school could untape your door. And it's only a way to catch kids who have already broken curfew, not catch them before they get into trouble.

I've done my share of sitting in the hallway (on a pillow usually ) until things quieted down, but never in a resort with outdoor hallways. And never overnight; just until the kids gave it up.

Good luck!