And people wonder why helicopter parents exist…
I am THAT Mom when it comes to school field trips.
My second grader has yet to take a class trip without me. I will chaperone school excursions until she graduates from high school, if the school allows it. And if there comes a day when school administrators put the kibosh on having parents supervise students, I’ll probably still show up because you can’t stop moms and dads from being present at public venues, right?
Hovering be damned; I refuse to allow this to happen to my kid… or this:
According to news reports, several eighth grade students from a school in Manitoba are still reeling from a recent field trip where they were tricked into eating moose droppings by a parent chaperone.
The kids were on a class canoe trip when the chaperone offered them the animal poop. Only, the students were told the pieces of dry dung were chocolate-covered almonds.
Canadian news reports say the parent in question pulled the so-called “candy” out of a Ziploc bag and laughed while the group of 13 year olds chewed on the moose excrement.
If that weren’t revolting enough, reports claim the school principal and counselor were in on the joke and stood by giggling as the kids downed the droppings.
A mom of one of the victims told reporters that the moose feces got stuck in her daughter’s braces and she is still traumatized by the event.
You don’t want to know what my reaction would be if my kid was tricked into eating animal feces by a parent chaperone and laughed at by school administrators.
Actually, you probably wouldn’t mind knowing, but I just don’t want written documentation of it lest it be used against me in court, but I digress.
According to reports, the school administrators who witnessed the prank have been disciplined; however, irate parents want more done to punish the adults involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, international anti-bullying experts are using the field trip gone wrong as an example of how not to act your age.
Rosalind Wiseman, an author on bullying, told Canadian reporters that anyone who believes the parents of the kids who were victimized on the field trip are overreacting is wrong.
“You have braces on your teeth and you cannot get excrement out of your teeth because of what your principal did to you. I mean, that is not a practical joke,” she said.
Wiseman said the adults involved in the prank should be mandated to take anti-bullying classes.
“This is about adults needing to be clear of [what] their … basic roles and responsibilities are, and that they not only failed, but that they colluded with each other, to humiliate a kid,” she said.
How would you react if this happened to your child on a class field trip?