Warren High: Parents should decide if Paris, London safe for trip
Board members at Warren Township High School in Gurnee say they won't revoke permission for a student field trip to London and Paris in March out of terrorism concerns, but they agreed parents should be polled to make sure they still support the plan.
Warren District 121 board members authorized the trip for history classes before last month's terrorism attacks in Paris. The attacks led to a school board discussion about whether the students still should travel overseas.
"That's a parental choice," board member Michael Munda said. "If they're looking to put their child on a plane for an academic endeavor, hopefully they're engaged in what's going on. They're not going to place their child in harm's way. I just think that is a parental choice that we really shouldn't get into."
Warren board President John Anderson said it should be stressed to parents the elected officials reserve the right to revoke their authorization for the trip.
"I'm saying, what happens if something else happens in Europe, say in February, and you're getting ready to leave?" Anderson said. "Do we have a responsibility then to say, 'No?'"
While the board didn't move to scrap the trip at a meeting Tuesday night, the members agreed the parents should be polled on whether the terror attacks have changed their minds about their children going to London and Paris from March 19 to 27.
Social studies teachers Cheryl Parmenter and Ryan Anderson plan to bring 45 students on the educational visit. In response to a query by District 121 board member Liz Biondi, Parmenter said so far she's heard from one parent who is considering canceling a pupil's trip.
Parmenter, who will send emails for the parental feedback, said almost all the students have trip insurance, but the policy doesn't allow for a refund if they cancel due to terrorism or acts of God. The trip cost about $2,700 per student.
"They would have to either have an existing medical condition or they'd have to be on their way to the airport to go on the trip and then be in a car accident or have jury duty," Parmenter said. "Lots of restrictions there."
Parmenter and Ryan Anderson said they will prepare the students for the trip in different ways, such as being alert in big cities and learning how to be in a foreign country with a group of about 50 including the instructors and chaperones. The teachers said a terror strike can happen anywhere.
Ryan Anderson said four mandatory meetings will occur before the trip with the students and their parents. He added there also will be four voluntary sessions before they take off March 19.
"The best you can do is make yourself aware of your surroundings," he said.
Earlier this month, Lake Zurich Unit District 95 board members agreed parents of high school band members should be polled on whether they still want their teenagers to travel to Paris in December 2016 in the wake the terrorist attacks.