School tour aborted, kids now due back at 2:30am. Overreaction?

[Encolere]

My 16 year old is on a school trip. They left on Sunday and were due back tomorrow evening. They were having a great time. After dinner this evening they were told some (unnamed) kids were caught with illegal substances and they were all to pack up immediately to be shipped home. They are a 5 hour drive away and will now get in at 2:30 am. I, and most other parents, have to be up a few hours later for work.

AIBU to think this is an extreme reaction? It was a small number (I presume) of the 40 or so kids on the trip. There was no mention of any of the other students being in danger nor were the police involved as far as we know. If the schools previous MO for dealing with incidents like this are to go by, this will never be mentioned again and the kids involved will remain anonymous.

It is probably revelvant that this school group have been trouble from their first year in secondary. Despite the majority of the group being well behaved they are always (all) in trouble because of the actions of those few who are lacking in the cop on department.

Yes, I think a meeting with the Head is appropriate, you are only getting this second hand.

However, I think it's quite common for a group to be held accountable for the actions of a few. Two years ago when our daughter was in Uni and living in halls, someone stole all the bathroom taps and undertook further damage. The student residents received a letter saying they would all have their accounts debited with the shared cost of repairs.

At the time our Daughter was home, and I had her aeroplane boarding pass to prove it which I sent to the property manager. I also asked why they were not insured. I didn't receive a reply and our Daughter's account was not charged. They eventually found the tap handles, so their tactic of addressing all the residents paid off as someone quietly spoke up.

expat101

Why do think that they weren't insured?
and
Why should they claim on the insurance for deliberate damage(or whatever) when the contract that students sign say that they will pay for damage to the property?

That's really crap

Also, I can't believe the school still hasn't communicated at all with the parents.

My son has been in a difficult class this year. About 5 of the kids are really noisy and disruptive. I said to my son that I feel sorry for the teacher, and my son told me that the teacher said that while some of the pupils in the class are challenging, there are also some really amazing kids in the class too, so he feels really lucky to be the teacher of that class. I thought that was so good of him. It's really easy for teachers to get bogged down by a few troublemakers and forget that the majority of kids are hardworking, kind and polite.

I do understand that teaching is hard, I'm a teacher myself, but you can't dismiss a whole class year based on the actions of a few. It's so unfair on the kids who are trying hard.

No advice, Op, but a shit-ton of empathy.

BoneyBack, as a Landlord, tenant liability insurance is a must-have these days for anyone renting out a property. Where you have multiple occupants, why would you not?

I can't believe what I read sounds like the school is back in the 30's with its collective punishment strategy.. Think all the parents should get together this is so out of order

expat101

I asked in response to your post where you ask the property manager why they weren't insured.

Have I missed something? Coming home early wasn't necessarily a "punishment" for the whole year, but more likely a necessity for logistical reasons, e.g. the venue insisting they leave/staffing ratio issues.

The whole-group talking-to from the Head is a tricky one. A lot of what you report could have been taken out of context or been open to interpretation. They had to speak to all of them, as they probably don't know exactly who the perpetrators were. And some of the points they would have been making, e.g for evil to triumph is when good people stand by and watch (paraphrase!) is useful for everyone to hear, regardless of what happened.

I don't think the school / teachers were being unreasonable at all because they're liable should anything happen. In order to prevent any further incidents from happening, they obviously made the decision to terminate the trip early-with good reason. It could also have been the host had also asked them to go.

Shame because this kind of behaviour spoils it for all and although it does not seem fair on the well behaved children but the school would have taken the 'safest' decision for all children and parents (I feel) should be supportive of the schools decision!

However, parents of the well behaved children should insist on having feedback from the school about how they have dealt with the childen who had the drugs as it is incredibly unfair for all the well behaved students.

Well yes, we entrusted our children to them to make the best judgements for their welfare in that period of time. And they did. We assume but we still have no idea what happened or who was involved.

The school addressed the year but didn't say what happened only that they were all to blame. So my child is being accused of something but we have no idea what that something is. We have had no communication from the school. Their attitude is archaic but mostly it's bizarre. How could it seem reasonable to accuse a whole group of 60 pupils without saying exactly what they did.

Many parents have written to the head and/or board of management but as yet there have been no responses. Some parents have rung the school but again, no information. It seems like they want it all to just go away.

I'm unsure of the governance chain in Irish school? So is there a local authority equivalent you could contact?

To be clear, I think the staff on the trip probably did the best they could, especially since they are unlikely to have had senior leadership with them at the time. However, I do think that it has been badly handled since they got back.

i would almost never suggest this, but if the school is refusing to give you information and you have asked governors / board of management, would the threat of sending the story, with a good sadface picture of the innocent kids, to the local paper have any effect?

Have you been told what they are all being blamed for yet? I’d be annoyed if my child was being accused of something and no one would tell me what it is, it would feel very suspect. Are they allowed to do that?