Worried

Brittanie brought home the itinerary for the senior trip and they have changed the trip from New York, which is where they normally go, to New Orleans. I don't remember if I blogged this before or not but if I did, so what. It's my blog and I can be redundant if I want to. lol

I e-mailed Dr. Maddox (the principal) about it and he wanted to talk to me about it and asked when it was a good time to call so he could go over the details of the trip with me. But with all the text message crap from last week, I guess it slipped his mind. I mentioned to him then that CBS did a 48 hours special on how out of control the homicide epidemic is in New Orleans. According to the report, there were 162 homicides last year and only 2 convictions. If criminals get away with crime, they do it more often. Click here for the 48 hours report.

Today, I was looking wafb.com and saw that there were 4 more murders in the French Quarter, which of course you have to visit when you go to New Orleans....it was on the itinerary even. Click here for that report.

I think it would be irresponsible, wreckless, not to mention INSANE to take a group of teenagers down there! No way is my child going on that trip. I e-mailed the newest report link to Dr. Maddox, called Dr. Hawkins, who is the Associate Superintendent for the school district, and asked Brittanie to ask Hank (the guy she has been seeing) to have his mom call me....she is on the school board. I'm not going to stop until the trip venue is changed. Dr. Hawkins told me they allow the schools some flexibility in planning trips and they were apprehensive about the trip as well but were waiting to see what response parents would have to the trip. Well probably most parents just thought, it is $575 and their kid isn't going and let it drop. But I want my child to go on her senior trip. I didn't get to go to mine because it was always a drunken party at the beach in Florida and not only was I not interested in going but my mom wouldn't have even thought about it. I never even asked. But Swansea High School seniors should be able to have a senior trip that doesn't endanger their lives!

So if you are a parent of a senior at Swansea High, call Dr. Maddox (803-568-1100) or Dr. Hawkins (803-568-1000) and let them know what you think about this trip!