Today I read about Phylicia Moore's death on a school trip. It brought back memories of another child – a teenager from my school who died on a trip to a bike-building competition. He was a child from Goa, India and a kind-hearted kid. He, too, drowned in a swimming pool when the chaperones were nowhere to be seen.
Actually – I can say this now because I no longer teach at the school - the chaperones were in a room talking with each other, smoking and chattering away. To assuage their guilt the school district planted a tree in his honor, but even now his parents always set an empty place for him at the dinner table.
Yep, the school district got off well. They weren’t sued.
Avoidable Accidents, Untaught Lessons
At my school was a teacher who was always meaning to write a book on what school trip chaperones needed to know. This lady was the queen of trips and was also the one in charge of teaching the severely retarded children in the school. She was a great advocate for them but even better, she was an expert in keeping kids safe — no matter where she took them.
That woman knew everything about chaperoning. The “procedures” most people considered to be instructions in chaperoning always made her cringe. It is all so inadequate, she always said. There simply was no state-sanctioned, state-required manual for chaperones.
I wish my friend had written her book.
- She kept many a kid safe — in buses, trains, plains, hotel rooms, subway systems.
- She prevented a lot of kids from embarrassing their school or coming back from a school trip pregnant.
- She kept students healthy, accident-free, and alive.
- She kept her eyes – and all her students’ eyes—on everyone (fellow students, strangers, teachers) in the vicinity.
- She certainly would not have been in a hotel room asleep while kids were awake or playing around in a pool.
Article comments
1 - ConcernedParent
In both the Natalie Holloway case and the Phylicia Moore case(the latter a recent school trip victim), the question of chapperones continues to surface. What's their role if they abdicate their responsibility to the teens and youth they are supposedly responsbility for? I too have seen chapperons on school trips enjoying themselves and not doing what they should be doing in watching and guiding these young people. In both cases, chapperones are always in the background, hiding in the shadows when a tragedy occurs. School districts and chapperones need to be held accountable and required to do their jobs when acting as chapperones. Otherwise, what good are chapperones on these trips? Seems like they've forgotten whey they are on the trip.
2 - Carole McDonnell
Very true. The little boy who died at the high school where I was teaching assistant also died from drowning in a pool. IT amazes me that teachers would trust water. It also amazes me that what often happens is that no one realizes the dead child is "missing" for hours after.
-C
3 - fufu
For God's sake, will people STOP BLAMING THE SCHOOL? I went on the trip with Phylicia, so I know that the group has no affiliation with the school! People don't even know the facts and they're complaining. You obviously don't know much about the case, since she most likely didn't even drown. The autopsy said she hadn't been in the pool very long when we found her, so please read up on something before you comment.
4 - Carole McDonnell
Hi furfu:
Even if it was not an accidental drowning and there was something else more evil working in this girl's death, would she have died if a chaperone had been with her? If a chaperone had been nearby, would she have ended up in the pool?
I've seen one kid die and I've seen others on televion who disapeared. I used to teach, and YES! I blame the schools.
So, even if this is that rare situation where the school is not to be blamed, we STILL need a book about chaperoning? Or are you against that too?
5 - fufu
Ah, I see. So the chaperones are supposed to tail us everywhere? Let's say the chaperones checked the rooms. What then? Will that stop us from simply leaving our rooms 5 minutes later? Honestly, the chaperones could have slept in the same room with us and Phylicia could have snuck out hile they were asleep and people would still be blaming the chaperones. Seriously, a book on chaperoning? That's a bit much.