March 27, 2003
Ugh. The Palatine High School
Ugh. The Palatine High School choirs and bands were planning a senior trip this year to New York around Memorial Day; students had been saving up for years for this thing. And they had paid their money in, gotten their itineraries and everything.
When the war started, the school decided to forbid the groups to fly. And they wouldn't give them an extra day off school to take the train. In fact, they're probably just going to cancel the trip.
And keep the money.
Some things they can get refunds on, like the plane tickets. That money they're just keeping outright. Other things they can't, like the $80-a-head tickets to see Lion King on Broadway, and they're going to donate them to the Make-a-Wish Foundation to get a tax writeoff.
I'm hearing this via my sister Kathy, whose boyfriend Ryan is getting jacked on this along with a bunch of her other friends; last year they did the same thing (cancelled a trip to New York), but they did it right after 9/11, so the money hadn't been paid up yet and they had time to plan a trip to St Louis. It's not clear whether this year's seniors will get any trip at all, but they've made it pretty clear that they aren't getting their money back in any case.
I can just barely understand that the school is able to do this---although the students are contributing all their own funds, they're technically travelling in the school's name---but it's difficult to see why they would, and it's unfathomable to me that they have the right to keep the money anyway, or to unilaterally donate all the Lion King tickets and keep the tax writeoff. I think the kids should contact a lawyer. How completely obnoxious.
"It's not so difficult---[Bush] does what rich people want, and he does
what ignorant, violent people want. So he has lots of money and a huge
constituency." --Michael Kimmitt
Posted
by blahedo
at 11:39pm
on 27 Mar 2003
