Middle school tour group from heck

[kherbert05]

I'm glad that you are writing a letter - in my district contracts would not be renewed for something like this. The district provided transportation at a fee to the State 4A Football Championship and the distant runoff games leading to the championship. The ADULTs and Students were read the riot act  before leaving about behavior leaving for the game. According to a co-worker who took the bus they made it clear - bad behavior would get you and your party booted from the game and looking for a ride home (the kids had to have an adult chaperon to ride the bus.)

Last time I was in DC, I kept running into annoying group and charming group. Annoying group were HS, an charming group were 5th graders going to JH next year. Annoying group kept running people over. Finally I was at the Air and Space museum waiting on a stairway going down from the 2nd floor to tour a model of Something - space lab maybe. there was a bit of a line, but just on the stairs. Part of this group tries to push through - and shoves a woman walking with a cane and a child maybe 4 -5 yo into me. I caught the woman - the girl hit my leg and didn't fall. As I was steading the woman the kids said "Hey (Censored word) we are in a hurry move your (Censored word)."

I looked a the little girl and said softly cover your ears.  Then I bellowed in my you can hear me across the crowded cafeteria teacher voice, "What do you think you are doing - Because what you just did is called assult and it stops now!" I move up the stairs they start scrambling backwards. Their Chaperon comes over and demands to know what I'm doing.

I'm still bellowing - and start lowering my voice and I see the guards running (why I bellowed in the first place I couldn't see any guards near by) "I'm keeping your brat students from hurting people by shoving them down the stairs. I telling you to control these Juvenal delinquents or else every single time I see you in a museum I will point you all out to the guards and explain I have witnessed your little punks shoving people using canes and small children down the stairs, trying to vandalize exhibits, and generally being rude, uncouth, and generally annoying. I will find the nearest area cyber cafe -and I will e-mail your principal and supertendant a blow by blow description of your out of control students. Or they can morph into humans and will call the day done.

The guards arrived - the other visitors and I explained what had happened and the group was kicked out of air and space for the day. I saw them several times after that. THey knew me - the whole group would turn tail and walk quickly away.

If I had known the school/district I would have written the letter - but I wasn't even sure what state they were from.

The other group - they were charming and well supervised. I approached one of the teachers and explained I thought they deserved a pat on the back. I got the name of their school district and superintendent, and wrote a very nice letter about their good manners.

We are taking a group of 5th graders to Natural Bridge Caverns in San Antonio. Not all students can go (the 5th grade teachers got a grant). At this point, they are looking at inviting 4th graders because so many 5th graders have removed themselves from the possibility of going. (Funny how stealing from a teacher, beating up a classmate, and threating to hit a teacher will do that).

[Wry Exchange]

I've chaperoned many high school bus trips.  The kids on my trips BEHAVE or die.   If the kids needed to burn off energy, let them play soccer or frisbee off away from other people and vehicles.  The busses should have been split up 2 and 2 to get the students through the homes faster.  Poor planning on the tour leader's part.

[Hopefull]

Trust me, I'm working on a letter to the school district. 

DC girl this is the first thing that came to mind. Write a letter!! It really speaks VOLUMES when kids are on a trip like that and someone who lives states away writes a letter.

Keep us updated. Might want to also follow up with a call.

[willow08]

Another Pod for writing the letter.  And the "we drove all night" excuse is complete hooey.   I rode with a group of high school students (of all different backgrounds and social groups) all night to reach DC for the 2000 inauguration and despite not showering or getting good sleep, they were the best behaved group of kids it was my priviledge to spend time with. They resisted the many MANY opportunities to get into trouble during the ceremony and then we toured several monuments (in spitting rain) and they never complained, they never misbehaved.  Of course, their teachers rode herd on them like you wouldn't believe.  And the parents made it clear that any reports of bad behavior would meet with consequences.  Heck, I was afraid to misbehave.

[DCGirl]

To respond to a few points:

I suspect that driving all night allowed them to save money on hotel/motel rooms for that night.  I've heard that some school trips do it that way.  After Ash Lawn, they were heading to Washington, DC, where they had their first hotel reservations.

Some of the kids were wearing jackets or tee shirts for the school's sports teams (the cider-spraying idiots all seemed to be lacrosse players, judging by their logo'd clothes).  Once the chaperone told me that they'd driven all the way from Lansing, MI, it was a cinch to find the school. 

Some of the girls were apparently school cheerleaders.  How did we know?  They decided that the lawn at Monticello was the perfect place to practice their routines. 

With regard to the number of chaperones, it appeared that there were two per bus, which to me seems entirely too few.  The next day I looked at DH and said, "Well, it could have been worse.  They could have been staying at our motel last night." 

On our way home yesterday, we stopped at Montpelier, the home of James Madison.  I have to say that our hearts sank when we saw a family with small children join our tour group.  Two of the children were in a double stroller.  The oldest was probably 8 or 9.  The children could not have been more well-behaved.  We made sure to compliment the parents at the end of the tour, as did the guide. 

[Sharnita]

As far as driving all night, it actually is not a terribly bad idea.  We're talking a good 14-16 hour trip so if the bulk of it is made at night when the kids would sleep anyway then  that makes the trip seem much shorter.

[BettyP]

I work in a museum....................

I am well known for my "mom voice" that can be heard on ALL three exhibit floors, the basement, and the fourth floor adminsitration area if need be. I can not tell you how many times, when I worked in admissions, I would have to come out from behind the desk and reprimand kids. Oh, an the chaperones were standing right there. I now work in the basement and only rarely deal with school groups. However, I will not stand for ill-behaved children here and have spoken up to the kids, the chaperones, and the teachers.

We won't go into the fifth grader who grabbed my left breast one morning...

And people wonder why I barely tolerate kids other than Wee Child.

[MissRose]

Some kids have no idea how to behave these days in public places, and using an bad excuse such as a long bus ride to excuse bad behavior is even worse 

Keep us posted on the letter writing - there are plenty of newspapers & other forms of media in the Lansing, Michigan (i live just over an hour from that area) and surrounding areas & i am sure that they would probably print it.  After all they gave their hometown area a bad name - perhaps some public embarrassment in the media would help!

[ItZWhoUKnow]

You know what I find sad? The fact that you complimented parents on their children's good behavior...Not that they shouldn't be complimented just that there had been so few "good" kids in your presence that the good ones stood out.

I'm not a teacher or have I been a chaperone for an extended field trip but I managed to take my two Autistic children to Disney on a bus (10 hours) and managed to keep them in check through the crowds, lines and just general excitement ofv being there...If I can pull that off, the grown-ups should be able to manage a bunch of teenagers....

[Heat04]

DCgirl...I took this exact trip in college. I loved them all 
I enjoyed it more than I would have if I was in middle school...that's for sure.
Monticello is a lot bigger than it looks on then nickel, aye? 

Sorry, O/T

[Trisha]

Regardless of if YOU know who these kids were in the group, I would wager that the school will know who misbehaved by their "normal" behavior, as well as they'll probably be asking the chaperone's, who will know names.

[Clara Bow]

Would "Juvenal" delinquents be angry, bitterly sarcastic Italians?
 >:DAuntie's being pedantic again, sorry.
I am enraged beyond words at these stories. And reminded of touring the Davenport house in Savannah where I watched a couple let their stupid fifteen year old rock a gorgeous 18th century cradle (clearly roped off) and then kept grabbing the blinds in the rooms to peer out the windows and the bleeding street they just bleeding walked the bleeding heck up to get to the bleeding house.
This is why I go do my touristing in the off season...fewer evil children. DC in the spring is a nightmare.

[Scritzy]

That is freakin' HORRIBLE. I would have hated to have our trip to Monticello ruined by such hellspawn kids.

I'm glad you were able to eat in relative peace and quiet in Michie Tavern. Isn't that place the greatest? One of my favorite restaurants.

We're going back to Monticello someday. That place is a shrine to my Jeffersonian husband. And I hope there are no middle-school tourgroups from Lansing there!

Keep us posted.

[Akarui Kibuno]

Oh my, this reminds me of the "UK College groups" we had in January or something at Disney.

Several schools for the UK ("college" is our word for this age group I think, 14-16 or something) came to Disney. OH MY.

First, we could almost tell from a mile away that they were coming from the UK (yes, usually, as a group, we can tell) . That's not the bad part though, we LOVE the UK!

The bad part was that the "chaperones" let some groups of kids on the loose, and since we have two parks and a whole resort (cause of COURSE those groups were usually there for three days) it ended up a nightmare cause some of these kids had terrible attitude.

The day we had a briefing that said "No more UK college!" we all yelled something like "YEEEEEEEEHA!"

(Note to UK Teens : You don't need that much makeup. Seriously.)

[Sirius]

I've chaperoned many high school bus trips.  The kids on my trips BEHAVE or die.   

My mom often went on band trips as a chaperon, and she had that same philosophy.  The students all knew better than to mess with Mrs. Lastname, because she could handle all of them, including the football players.  My sister and I were also very well behaved, because if we hadn't been and it had gotten back to my mother, we'd have never gotten to go on another band trip.