Boards of Education

Posted by Bob Fenster on May 31, 2003 at 12:54:15:

Just a few thoughts, perhaps the beginning of a conversation:

The suggestions that Passports has for talking to Boards of Education are kind of amusing. My Board is paranoid (as many are) about lawsuits -- and they have not approved an international trip for twenty years. The Board's nightmare, I hate to say it, is not that something horrible happens to its students; it's that something horrible happens to its students AND that their parents decide to sue the Board.

As someone posted below, I think the solution is to bypass the Board of Education and plan a trip on one's own. That precludes me from recruiting in my classes, but having developed relationships with students via extracurricular activities -- and collecting email addresses! -- I've been able to recruit outside of classes.

Just as the Board has no right telling me I can't hire a student to babysit my daughter or mow my lawn, they don't have the right to tell me I can't travel in my free time with local teenagers who happen to be my students. I'm sure the Board is aware of my trips and are relieved that they have no connection to them.