High School Senior Trips?

[MrsNick]

I don't remember any type of "Senior Trip" (school sponsored or not sponsored) when I was in high school.

There were, however, a few school sponsored trips to Europe. I went on the one to England when I was a senior (juniors and seniors were allowed to sign up). They kept us so busy with the cultural tours that we would drop into bed every night - way too tired to even think about getting into trouble. It was a great trip; we saw a lot of London, and a lot of the English countryside. The trip was over Easter break.

The school announced the trip during spring of my junior year, so I got a job to pay for the trip (and eventually, college expenses). I never even considered asking my mother to pay for the trip.

Whether I paid for it or not, though, my mother would never have consented to my going on an unchaperoned trip, particularly to a foreign country.

Although I don't have children of my own yet, I know how foolish kids of that age can be and would not consent to children of mine going on a "party" type trip with a crowd of their equally foolish friends. In situations with young people, no one ever means for anyone to come to harm, but it does happen. Young people don't usually don't handle emergencies well, so bad situations go from bad, to worse, to real worse when there isn't a responsible adult to supervise (and the bigger the group, the more adults are needed for effective supervision). JMO

 

[georgina]

When I was a senior, a bunch of my friends and I rented a cabin in a state park for a weekend. I find it hard to believe our parents let us go, and I'm not sure what I would do if my Dd wanted to do something like that.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

DS senior trip was suppose to be to club med in florida until they found out they have a bar there. He goes to a small religious school so I guess its out of the question. They had to do alot of fund raising or else pay the whole amount. The fundraisers were relentless and generally for junk I didnt want so I am paying mostly the whole amount for him. He did volunteer to sell snacks for home soccer games. There are only 40 kids in the class and I am assuming they are all going. I dont know where they are going now. They said Mrytle Beach or Virginia Beach was mentioned. They have a whole week off from school in May dedicated to the trip each year. Several teachers go as chaperones and they are well supervised. I do think they are looking for a place wher the kids can be contained a little. I have paid $100 a month so far for a $500 total so far.

 

[Miss Jasmine]

I don't know how I feel about these things (especially the unchaperoned trips). I understand that a lot of these kids will be leaving home in a few months anyway to go off to college. In fact, I went off to college about a month after I graduated from high school (I started in the summer semester). I will be honest and admit I didn't make it through the first week of college without getting into a serious problem. I was 17, immature and naive. I guess it's that incident that makes me very iffy about senior trips.

 

[ktglads]

My school did the sponsored trip to WDW. It was a tad easier to only have 40 people to worry about with 3 chaperones since it was an all-girls school and you really didn't even THINK about missing any of the checkins. They set the precedence one year to actually send someone home (making their parents pay) for misbehavior.

 

[barkley]

"back in the dinosaur days" (79) our school sponsored "grad nite" at disneyland and a trip to hawaii-there was also a trip to france but juniors could go on it as well. the kids (that i was friendly with) who went to "grad nite" hated it (said it was a mad house and you could'nt get on many rides in the time allocated), hawaii ended up being a major party (despite the best efforts of the chaperones), and france....well for france the majority of chaperones were parents who went to enjoy things themselves, the parents supervised the kids very little and ended up having the drunken parties.

babysitter's daughter graduated 2 years ago and their school had a grad trip to hawaii. while the kids stayed in control (HEAVY DUTY SUPERVISION) they returned about 2 days before graduation and were so exhausted they could barely stumble through the ceremony (i think the school could have timed it better).

my concern letting the kids go unchaperoned is largly health and safety-cross the border and the drinking age is 18, that's pretty appealing even to the best behaved senior, while "my kid" may handle it well i don't need to get a call from the local police about the whole group getting tossed out of the hotel because one kid trashed their room. i would also be concerned (if my kid was a minor) regarding their accessing medical attention in an emergency. as last consideration would go to the liability i would take on financialy associating myself with this type of trip-i always wonder how optimistic the parent who guarantees the reservation on their credit card must be. even if i only guaranteed for my kid's room i would still be liable for any damages caused in that room by someone elses kid (you could go to court, but lord the expenses-the headaches-and if the other kid has just squeeked past 18 you could be looking at 20 years to recover any judgement).

 

[BeNJeNWaFFLe]

The senior trips by me are not through the school. The seniors always do a ski trip over the febuary break. It always ends up being a horror story. No I did not go, had no intentions to, and my parents would have never let me. If your DD and her responsible friends what to do their own thing, thats different. But honostly, I would not suggest letting her go with most of the senior class to anywhere. If the stories I heard are true (and I really believe they are), no concerned parent would allow it.

No I'm not saying a HS senior should not go out with friends and celebrate their graduation. I went out with mine right before school ended. Our senior prom was May 24th. It was a Thursday. There was no school Friday, Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday was senior cut day. So I had a long weekend of fun with my friends. We went to the local carnival most nights. Tuesday was my birthday so I coordinated a huge group of my friends to go to Six Flags for the day. We all drove down there, had a blast, came back and slept through Wednesday. It was a lot of fun and was something all the parents could agree on.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

Our senior trip (mid 80's) was to Mexico, and I/we were SHOCKED at how much freedom we were given. There were a few chaperone teachers/spouses, but we went days at a time without seeing them. We had no curfew (that I remember? I know that no one checked) and often no adult supervision. Yes, we were about to go off to college and be "on our own", but I just remember thinking that my parents would have NEVER let me go if they knew what it was really like.

And based on my experience, when our kiddos are going on senior trips I think I will volunteer to chaperone

 

[luvflorida]

When my oldest son, (25), graduated from high school, he wasn't the least bit interested in going on any trips, so no problem there.

Oldest daughter graduated four years ago from high school, and there was a lot of talk about a bunch of girls getting together and going somewhere down south. Husband and I weren't keen on the idea and told daughter that we'd have to discuss it and get back to her. Well, the girls never really got past the thinking stage and the trip never happened, so we were 'saved' again.

Youngest daughter graduates in two years and I just know there is no way we will let her go off with a bunch of kids. Also, she won't turn 18 until just before she starts college and she is not as independent as our two oldest were at her age, so those things factored into our decision. She is in her third year of French classes and plans on taking it for two more years, and really wants to go to Paris. So, her dad and I plan on taking her to France the summer she graduates from high school, and we've told her she can invite a friend to join us.