How to identify a non-sanctioned “school trip”
Parents should be aware that private agencies sometimes market trips to high school students that have not been endorsed by the board, the school, or parents. These might include ski trips, March break trips, or grad trips. The failsafe way to tell whether a trip has been organized and sanctioned by Lisgar Collegiate Institute is if you are asked to sign a permission form and return it to school. If you don’t receive an OCDSB permission form, it’s not a school trip. If it’s not a school trip, it may not offer a safe environment for your son or daughter.
In conjuction with the school, we have prepared a list of things that parents should be aware of in this regard.
- These trips are NOT organized, endorsed, supported or supervised by the school or the school board.
- These trips are NOT organized by the students' council.
- These trips are NOT supported by the school (parents') council.
- Binge drinking WILL be prevalent. In some cases all-you-can-drink is built into the price of the trip.
- Alcohol abuse (e.g. underage drinking) leads to risky sexual behaviour. Students DO return from these trips pregnant and/or infected.
- Illegal drugs will probably be available.
- Students do not always stay in the accommodations booked.
- Students who attend the ski trips miss classes without authorization.
- Some trips are to foreign countries where health care, legal processes and general levels of concern should not be assumed to be the same as in Canada.
- All the other kids are NOT going.