Drinking on a school trip?

[Flower64]

I contacted my child's school after a camping trip to ask about the teachers drinking on one of the evenings. My child said there was a lot of laughing, screeching and in her opinion the teachers were drunk. She's 13 so not a young child and I think she'd recognise someone drinking. I got an email reply today and part of it says "some staff did stay up later than the children one night, but at no point were any staff drunk. As an additional precaution two staff members consumed no alcohol at all".

AIBU to surmise then that the remaining staff members did have a drink - but in their opinion they weren't drunk - and is this actually acceptable? I don't think any teachers should be drinking on a school trip but now I am doubting myself and looking for opinions please!

If a teacher drank and could no longer act as a responsible adult then that ratio no longer holds.

Drinking a glass of wine doesn't prevent someone being a responsible adult. Otherwise every parent who has a drink whilst in sole charge of their children would be up for neglect.

I don't think OP will be coming back 😂

play

Theres a middle ground between stone cold sober and so paralytic they are comatose and incapable 🙄

Am I imagining we have had this thread before??

We have!

So 2 staff don’t drink in case anything happens, eg someone needs taken to hospital? This would mean both going to hospital with child, or whoever needs to go hospital? Fair enough, but what happens when the 2 sober teachers take someone to hospital? Who’s left in charge??

There's nothing to indicate that any staff member was drunk - in fact the school says they weren't. Having, say, a couple of glasses over the course of several hours doesn't make you drunk.

In the vast majority of cases, only one staff member would need to accompany a child to hospital. If they were so ill as to need an escort, the likelihood is that they'd call an ambulance anyway.

I’m cringing here for you and your DD OP, you’re that parent and that pupil!

Why would OP's child be concerned enough over teachers having a drink to mention it, unless she was trying to create a "smokescreen" to distract the op from her own behaviour, either now or on the trip?

Op, presumably your dd came home safely, and had a good time if this is your only complaint. Don't forget to thank the staff who organised and ran this trip unpaid (or at extra expense to themselves if they had to make arrangements such as additional childcare or pet-sitting) and in their own time.

(My first head teacher would actually encourage staff to have a glass of wine in school at the Christmas Dinner meal in order to model responsible drinking.)

I’ve reread and realise this accusation is made on the hearing of OPs child, she saw nothing!!
Family of clipes 🤣🙄

So 2 staff don’t drink in case anything happens, eg someone needs taken to hospital? This would mean both going to hospital with child, or whoever needs to go hospital? Fair enough, but what happens when the 2 sober teachers take someone to hospital? Who’s left in charge?? 🤔 I know they give up their time, but I really think there should be a no drink policy on trips, in case something happens! Plus these teachers are supposed to be role models for the pupils in their care! Op is NBU, I would be concerned too.

Right so do you think there is no middle ground between a few drinks and being drunk?
Poor role models, so do you think people should never drink ever?
Would a parent having a drink with their kids in their care then be a bad role model?
Get a grip!they give up their own time! ( from a non drinker!)
Maybe the answer is no more residentials, or maybe the parents can do it...

I remember going on the France/Belgium trip when I was about 13. We stopped off at a hypermarket and got a little of our money. We bought some juice and foreign sweets while the teachers filled the cargo bit of the coach with booze.
One of the teachers was responsible for making sure everyone was up in the morning, luckily we took an alarm clock because she slept in and then sat in the bus hungover with her sunglasses on. We all sang 'The wheels on the bus' etc. as loud as we could to annoy her. grin]

Yabu. My only worry would be how to identify the two that missed out so I could buy them a drink to compensate.

I don't see the issue with this op. I'm a scout leader and while that's a voluntary role, we have a similar arrangement where 1 leader doesn't drink in case we need a hospital run.

Of course the rest of us don't get drunk but a glass of wine is normally required after you've got the kids to bed!

Yabu.

I need to come off mn. Joy sucking posters like the op upset me.

Interesting to see how most people on this thread just assume that drinking tops all, everyone does it and if you don’t agree your a twat. It’s a blight on society and many many peoples and children’s living nightmare. I was one of those children and I’m prods that my children live in an “alcohol free bubble”

You'd have loved the residentials I went on in the 90's. We stayed at hotels and hostels and the kids were drinking as well as the teachers. I won't go so far as to say they condoned teenagers sneaking bottles into their rooms but they certainly didn't go all out to stop it either. There was a kind of neither side will grass on the other tacit agreement going on until things went too far one time and a girl ended up seriously ill. Things were tightened up all round after that.

😱 god forbid your child may do dofe and the teachers stay on a different campsite and 2 stay sober whilst the others have a drink...

I’d advise you don’t send your children on any other trips!

**proud

I can remember some of us skiving off a lesson & going to the local pub, one of the teachers was at the bar when we walked in, he raised his glass to us & carried on drinking.

nteresting to see how most people on this thread just assume that drinking tops all, everyone does it and if you don’t agree your a twat. It’s a blight on society and many many peoples and children’s living nightmare. I was one of those children

I was one of those children too. I find this “must have alcohol to get through everything” attitude really weird. If you can’t go without for a couple of nights then you have a problem.

Interesting to see how most people on this thread just assume that drinking tops all, everyone does it and if you don’t agree your a twat. It’s a blight on society and many many peoples and children’s living nightmare.

While I agree with you that the attitude of drinking being the answer to everything in a “pass the gin!” “Its always Prosecco o’clock!” way, I totally disagree that posters on this thread are all saying that alcohol is the way forward.

It seems to me that everyone is saying that school trips are hard enough that if teachers fancy a drink they should be able to enjoy it without being snitched on by 13 year olds or written to be complained upon by an adult.

I'm sorry for those posters who were children of alcoholics, but I think your ideas of what's normal might be skewed because of it.
Many adults enjoy a drink or two with their mates on holiday, or of an evening. That is completely normal. It doesn't mean they drink to a stupor or can't go without it for a couple of nights.

Read this before

I was a young leader on a guide camp years ago & young kids thought we were drunk cos we were laughing.

Reassured her we were playing a board game & drinking tea & she said her mummy laughs like that when she's drunk - maybe that's what she thinks that's what drunk people do

And this is why I don't do school trips any more. Having given up weekends nd evenings with my family to take other people's children on an unpaid trip and ensured that a responsible adult is on duty at all times some bastard will still find something to complain about.