Seattle Schools Community Forum

The District is definitely having trouble around field trips. There has always been incidents of misbehavior on field trips but they didn't get much publicity until the report of a rape on a Garfield High School field trip to NatureBridge. The review of that incident revealed the lax supervision that was practiced and the total neglect of the policies and procedures.

From Garfield parent (and sometime blog contributer) Johnny Calcagno:  As Principal of Garfield High School, I take the safety and security of every student, faculty and member of our GHS community very seriously. Recently, field trips were put on pause until improvements were made to the Seattle Public School's field trip guidelines and protocols. I am pleased to announce that effective October 13th, 2014, Garfield High School will again accept and evaluate field trip applications.

From SPS:   Below is the announcement on the district’s field trip procedures and the Garfield High School mediation. **Please note, the school district will not be providing any interviews.** District continues to improve overnight field trip procedures

According to a couple of my sources, other SPS high schools, primarily thru their teachers, are pulling back on field trips. What are the issues? - the official list of forms at the district website are gone (note: I could not find the webpage that describes what the district is doing BUT I put in "field trip" into Search and I found a 67- page document with all the forms.  It is quite a formidable read (both because of format and length). - according to my source, the official checklist is not complete, with multiple forms required have never existed (and may not exist at all) - some teachers have been told that they need food handler permits - the district wants to see maps/plans on how chaperones will account for all the students...4x a night What a mess. But frankly, it is a mess made at the hands of management, not the teachers.  (Granted the teachers on the Garfield trip did not do well but if procedures and protocols had been followed, the trip might have ha...

I attended Garfield's PTSA meeting last night.  There were about 65 people in attendance.  It was a bit odd because they chose to have the lights down so as to put the agenda and supporting documents on a big overhead screen.  It was pretty dark and made the remarks even more gloomy. I was fairly astonished and dismayed at what both Principal Howard and Director Blanford said on the subject of the Garfield field trip incident.  Some of it was contradictory and some was incoherent.  I think they made a confusing situation even more confusing.  But, as Principal Howard told the crowd, he got himself a lawyer and got advice from that lawyer on what to do. I can only say that loose lips sink ships and I was more than surprised at the comments from both men. There were three handouts, two quite interesting. Letter from Principal Ted Howard to Garfield parents Letter from Garfield PTSA to Superintendent Nyland, Michael Tolley, Sarah Pritchett and Ric...