Great Bridge Band, WDW Parades but NO RIDES!

[MegaDisney]

The Great Bridge High School marching band can travel to Florida to perform in the Orlando Citrus Parade and in Disney World's parade down Main Street, but students won't be allowed on the rides, school officials say.

The Great Bridge band has played in both parades over winter break every four years, for the past 16 years. Their performance in the Citrus Parade is broadcast on national television.

But parents say when they applied earlier this year for a field-trip permit for the students, it was denied. Band members and their parents said they were told again last week that the trip was off.

The rejection had been based on a school division rule put in place in 2006 that bans trips to amusement parks and water parks, school spokesman Tom Cupitt said.

The rule was in response to incidents that happened elsewhere in which students were injured on park rides, he said.

Cupitt said school division officials have now decided to allow the band members to travel and perform, provided they don't go on any of the park's rides.

"They can do it, as long as once they're done with the performance, they get back on the bus and go to the hotel," Cupitt said.

He said the school division is concerned that there may not be enough supervision for the 159 students signed up for the trip. Between 35 and 40 people have volunteered to go as chaperones, trip organizers said.

Band parent Robin Berens said Wednesday that no one involved with the band had been informed of the latest change.

Whether just being allowed to make the trip is enough for students and their parents remains to be seen. Some plan to take their concerns to the School Board at its Aug. 25 meeting.

For seniors in the band, four years of work, including daily after-school practices in the fall and daylong sessions of band camp during the summer, build up to the Disney World trip, said senior Geoff Smith, who plays the trumpet.

Students, and even some parents, have worked part-time jobs to help pay for the trip, he said.

"It was my light at the end of the tunnel, my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," he said. "You're going to take a bunch of high school students during Christmas and New Year's Eve to Disney World, and tell them they can't go on any rides?"

"It would still be fun," he said. "But it wouldn't be the same."

Link to original story.

[DizneyRox]

I promise to not go on any rides!

What is this world coming to. That's like going to a ball game and not getting a hot dog!

[Donald]

How disappointing. The kids know the tradition and work hard to get there, and then the rug is pulled out from under their marching feet! I hope the school division officials can work with the parents and students on this one. Good luck!

[GoinGoofyPlanninThisTrip]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Will they also be allowed to go to out to eat but not order any food?

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

[Funforall]

Please tell me you are not surprised. It's sad but I don't blame them. Kid goes down there, something unfortunate happens through noone's fault and everybody gets sued or pays to keep from getting sued. Make sure the blame goes in the right direction, it's a societal problem.

Sorry about the rant.

[scoot241]

Seriously? In high school, the only chaperones we had when we went to Disney were the two band directors (and I graduated from high school in 2001). As far as I know, the trips are still the same. We never had any incidents.

[CaptainJessicaSparrow]

Good. I'm glad.

I'm tired of unsupervised kids coming into the parks, stealing, screaming, yelling, cutting lines, harassing characters.

They need more chaperones, but the problem is there are never any or they are too busy visiting the adult areas backstage. So the kids do whatever they want.

[Tekneek]

Yes, let's assume that these kids were going to be troublemakers, despite a lack of any clear evidence of such a thing. Just because you become aware of problem groups does not mean you are aware of every group at the park that is not causing problems.

[Lacy]

This just seems crazy to me! I don't believe for a minute that these kids and chaperons won't go on any rides and I think they should.

[brownie]

Sad what our world has come to, although we only have ourselves to blame. People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions instead of pushing the financial responsibility onto whoever else they can.

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Bummer!
2) Sure, I understand the school board's concern about liability and injury.
3) But, they can buy special time-limited insurance for the trip.
4) This way, in case something happens,
. . . any injury costs are covered
. . . any liability claims are covered
5) I think they need to reconsider.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

I wonder if the parents (band booster club) had to raise the money for the trip....if so, I think I'd have to protest that one for sure....I agree unsupervised kids could be a nightmare, but there are well behaved kids out there too.....

[GrumpyFan]

1) Bummer!
2) Sure, I understand the school board's concern about liability and injury.
3) But, they can buy special time-limited insurance for the trip.
4) This way, in case something happens,
. . . any injury costs are covered
. . . any liability claims are covered
5) I think they need to reconsider.

While it may sound sad and unfortunate, I think there may be a bigger, possibly better reason as to why the decision was made.

Unfortunately, it may be out of the school's hands. The board or county of the school has to approve and fund the purchase of such insurance, and many systems right now are worried about how or if they will have enough money in the budget for running their busses all year. The last thing the board wants or needs is to have to go to the taxpayers and ask for a more money just so the kids can have ride some rides at Disney World.

[DisneyBabies]

If they are really that worried about liability if someone gets hurt, have all parents AND students sign a liability realease form. It can clearly state that if the students go in the parks and do anything other than play in the band and they get hurt the school, its administration, the school district, etc are not responsible and can not be held financially responsible (and they wouldn't have to buy insurance for the trip). If they don't sign, they don't go as part of the school group. If they go anyway, the school still wouldn't be responsible for them since they were not part of the band group.

I just don't think a few people should be punnished for what others do. When I was in school we didn't get punnished for the disrespect for others. We had to sign a behavior responsibility form that clearly stated what was expected of us and if we broke the rules, it also stated the consequences of that so no one could come back later and complain that they didn't know what would happen if they broke "one little rule". We had trouble on the first trip we took after we signed the forms and once the administration proved that they would take the actions that they informed us about, we never had a problem again.

[IamBelle]

wow! my marching band went to WDW 2 yrs ago and they were allowed to go on everything!! i dont think that is fair to the students!

[Mousemates]

My daughter's high school band marched in Epcot earlier this spring and had no such limitations...(thou our chaperone to student ration was a bit lower than the 4:1 of the poster's school...seemed lots of folks were interested in a disney trip, figure that).

WE had no disciplinary issues, had a great time and there were many in our crew who felt like the person in the article....

It was my light at the end of the tunnel, my pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

Band kids work hard, sacrifice a lot of free time and deserve a little something at the end of the year. Maybe the school simply needs to have a plan in place where kids aren't turned loose to roam the parks, but must stay in small groups with an adult chaperone.

[ParkMan]

Sounds like a bad idea done for what they thought were the right reasons.

This seems like a perfect setup for a commercial about out of touch school board members during their next election. Their school board members have to realize this.

I have to suspect this won't stand. It sounds like the kids are paying for a part of the trip - I can't imagine the parents of the kids will allow this.

[Grizz16]

As long as they're on their own time after completing school business, I see no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to ride the rides.

But this is the nanny state America in which we live.

[tinklover]

I must say isn't this the exact reason schools send out permission slips to be signed by teh parents? I mean come on I went with my marching band in 93 and we marched the world showcase and then left but we had a day in the parks we got to choose a park we wanted and we went . we also knew that this was a school trip and we had to act as if we wer ein school . if a student wer eto get caught doing something like say smoking they would get a day in detention or suspension once we got back just as if we were in school. I can see why the board members are fearful because anything can happen but let the kids have fun sheesh . it is not fair of them to say they can go but can not ride rides.

[disneyfan328]

My daughter went to FL twice with her band. Once to Universal and one to go on a cruise. While they were allowed to go on everything they did have to have chaperones and the ratio was 4 or 5 kids to one adult. For our trips we always had a travel company that the school dealt with and there was trip insurance that we as the parents had to pay for either by fundraising for it or paying cash( as we did for the whole trip). School districts and boards ect make up these rules without sometimes thinking of the outcomes for the students.

Our school district will not allow us to fly. So for whatever their reasoning is our kids have to stay on a buss for about 20+ hours to make it to FL and miss more days of school than if they were allowed to fly. They say its safer. I can say that on one said trip one of the busses got a flat tire which in turn delayed all 3 buses for almost 4 hours. Our kids were stuck on the side of the road in the middle of no where. Also on the same trip one of the busses was in an accident and several studens including the band director were hurt ( nothing to serious but enough to warrant a trip to the hospital )

I think that they are dangers involved in any trip, and its all a matter of which is the lesser of the evils. I don't feel it fair that these kids have worked hard enough and have enough dedication to get picked for the televised Citrus Parade but don't feel confident enough in their student to allow them to ride rides?