Members of the Barrington High School FBLA club attending a leadership conference are found with alcohol
BARRINGTON — Six Barrington High School students attending a national leadership conference earlier this month were caught with alcohol in their hotel room and later suspended for five days by high school officials.
According to Barrington High School Principal Joe Hurley, 55 students in the local chapter of the Future Business Leaders of America club attended the Fall National Leadership Conference in Baltimore, Md. from Nov. 5 to 8. At some point during the conference, chaperones checked on one of the rooms and discovered six students to be in possession of alcohol.
The Barrington High School delegation — the largest at the conference — stayed through until the end of the four-day event. On Monday, Nov. 9, school officials interviewed students involved in the incident and their parents and then levied the punishments. All six students identified were suspended for five days each. Names of the students were not released.
Mr. Hurley said it was the first time he could remember that the local FBLA club had been associated with this type of incident.
“This is a good club. They do really good work. They’ve done a tremendous job with the community. There was some poor decision-making here,” he said. “It’s unfortunate.”
The FBLA Fall National Leadership Conference in Baltimore started on Nov. 5 and drew a large group from Barrington. A number of students traveled by bus to the conference, while some of the students — mostly club officers — flew. The club’s two advisors, Mary Warlop and John West, who are both teachers at the high school, accompanied the students on the trip. Mr. Hurley said he was not sure if there were more chaperones traveling with the Barrington contingent.
A number of seminars and activities were planned for the students attending the conference. Friday’s seminars included “The Climb for Success: It’s about more than just getting to the Top,” “Personal Money Management,” “The Art of Negotiation,” and “In the News: Get Your Chapter Noticed.” FBLA, a national organization for high school students interested in pursuing a business career, is reportedly one of the most popular clubs at Barrington High School with 131 student members this year.
According to sources, during the evening of Nov. 7 a small group of Barrington students had some alcohol in their hotel room. One of the students, a female, became intoxicated and then called her home in Barrington. One of her family members, apparently nervous about the girl’s condition, called one of the FBLA chaperones who went to check on the girl. Upon entering the room, the chaperone discovered the alcohol.
Mr. Hurley said group leaders decided to stay the rest of the conference and deal with the punishments once the FBLA members returned to Barrington.
“They were leaving right after that night anyway,” Mr. Hurley said. The principal added that he was not sure whether Barrington FBLA chaperones discussed the incident with hotel officials or conference organizers. Ms. Warlop and Mr. West did not return phone calls for this article.
According to the Fall National Leadership Conference handbook, violation of the club’s code of conduct which includes a ban on alcoholic beverages for individuals under 21, could lead to “forfeiture of privileges to attend further events, confinement to your hotel room, dismissal from the conference, and being sent home at your own expense.”
It was not clear whether police were called to the Nov. 7 incident.
On Monday, Nov. 9, Barrington High School Assistant Principals Michael Messore and Nicole Varone, began a series of interviews with students involved in the incident and their parents. Officials administered suspensions shortly thereafter.
Barrington High School adheres to a policy that bans drug and alcohol use. Those found to be violating the policy face a seven-day suspension from extracurricular clubs or sports teams. Students in the National Honor Society may be placed on probation or dismissed from that organization, and will be required to forfeit any elected/appointed leadership position. A succeeding infraction during the current school year will lead to a 365-day suspension from all extracurricular activities and interscholastic competition.
Mr. Hurley said officials would be examining which clubs and activities the six suspended students participated in and take the necessary action.
Not all bad news
The Barrington High School FBLA club returned from the Fall National Leadership Conference in Baltimore, Md. with an award — the group was honored as the largest delegation to attend the weekend meeting. Fifty-five Barrington students attended the conference; there are 131 members of the club.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
I know!!! LOL.
How unfortunate, another black eye for Barrington.
55 students and only two chaperons!
Especially in Baltimore, one of the highest crime rates in this country.
I'm not sure I would have allowed my child to go. Think about it. Fifty-five teenagers. Two chaperones. Out of state? Several nights? I can't believe the high school allowed it! I hope this opens a policy discussion. Maybe one chaperone per 8 to 10 students would make more sense.
It appears they actually won two awards that trip. One for the most students, the other for the most stupid students. Maybe they should have trimmed back a bit to a more manageable crowd. They caught six, it most likely was a lot more than that, those were just the ones that were caught.
jaqlady - come on, do you make stuff up for every post?
The speculative nonsense serves no purpose but to offend.
previous you are condemning a vitim of verbal abuse as the villian and now all of these leaders were offenders most likely?...absolutly shameless in my opinion!!! stop posting drivel the sheep are likely to believe as fact
Oh well another common sense approach should have been used. 2 individuals to supervise so many is plain and simple stupid.
I mean the military has 50 people in a platoon divided into 5 squads each each squad has a squad leader, the platoon has a sergeant to over see the platoon and a lieutenant to oversee the sargeant. So it would seem there needed to be at least 7 adults.
Jack
Grow up bigbaby, a lttle humor, ok. These posts are only viewable by people on this site, if any of them need clarification of what i'm saying they only need to ask.
A victim of verbal abuse? If you are refferring to the Ms Lynch incident, I would hardly call that a victim of verbal abuse, since she was the one being extremely insensitive complaining about an off campus non school event, and then furthering that insensitivity with her comments to the reporter.
Before you start throwing accusations around look at what you are doing with my user name, by the way I am a man, so calling me jaqlady leaves you wide open for me to say anything I wish about you.
I couldn't care less about offending someone or group of someones who allow this sort of thing to happen. If you think that only six of these kids, out of a group of 55 were the only ones involved then I would say you are very naive.
what i would like to know is if the police werent involved and obviously the school wouldnt tell...who excactly had the nerve to tell the barrington times?!
I would say that six kids getting suspended for the same incident would be news.
beware the farmer wearing waders!!! lol
ya maybe its news for high school students, and young girls to gossip about. but news for the whole town? people should care all that much, do they not have more important things to think about than the latest high school gossip? and jaqdadi it being news has nothing to do with who the idiot who told the barrington times is
I would say your the idiot for thinking a story like this shouldn't be reported or calling someone an idiot for reporting it. What are trying to do intimidate people for reporting stuff to the authorities. That would be illegal, wouldn't it?
Don't you think future parents of kids going on this trip next year should know how the school is handling it, or not handling it. If this story is correct and there were only two chaperons for 55 high school aged kids going to a crime infested city such as Baltimore, which I worked in for about two months last year so I can tell you my daughter would not be allowed to go to this particular city, is absolutely wrong if it is correct. That is newsworthy and anyone reporting it should not have to be concerned with anyone critisizing there judgement.
Maybe I missed something. One of the seminars was titled, “In the News: Get Your Chapter Noticed.” It sounds to me like the students that were suspended attended that seminar and did an exemplary job of putting theory into practice.
alright jaqdadi what are you a stay home dad sitting home reading the barrington times online? cool. and it has nothing to do with the city of baltimore or the chaperones. it sounds like the school dealt with it and i bet its over and done with...what good is it putting it in the newspaper?
The city of Baltimore comment was about how it is a crime ridden city and these high school kids from out of town had two chaperons. What would we be talking about if they decided to go out of the hotel on their own, drunk, in this particular place that could have been disasterous. That is why it is newsworthy. What are you some teenager with no clue about responsibility.
The fact that these kids were able to obtain alcohol at all on this trip is an indication of the lack of supervision. That does have something to do with the chaperons. Now these parents have to deal with supervising their children at home for a week, probably costing money for someone missing work.
Somehow they got the alcohol and the fact that they are teens means that is a criminal act all on its own, so here they are in one of the most crime infested cities of this country commiting a crime. Thats not news.
Parent :
My son was involved in FBLA in high school and the experience was wonderful He chose his major in college based on the aspects of business in which he competed.. Mr. West and Mrs. Warlop give so much of their time and expertise to enrich students lives, I hope this negative incident does not result in other students losing out on this educational opportunity.
I agree that this group should not suffer because a bunch of kids were basically acting like kids. That is why the parents of future trips need to make sure that supervision is provided as well as activities that will make it difficult for them to do something like this again. If it starts to become a party trip it won't be happening for much longer.
Your calling me an idiot. Aren't you the one espousing the virtues of a college dropout, eagle scout failure, political failure, etc.... A person who had a well paid government contracted position who now sells bumper stickers. No thanks pal, i'll pass on that one.
How can anyone take you seriously? You lie, make veiled threats, as well as glorify the mundane. You post comments on this site as if you know people personally and I for one have never met you, and hope I never do. You are an evil minded person who only wants to hurt people.
I don't know who the career ssi recipient is, whoever it is must have good reason for it. That isn't easy to get, especially these days. I know you refer to rastabri as the radical liberal. What I am curious about is this obsession with name calling and stereotyping you have. It seems no discussion can occur when you are around without anger, derogatory comments and outright lies.
What is your problem? These are not qualities good people look for when seeking advice or information. You must know that so I am left to believe that you are a very bitter, angry person, who has no life.
hey jack, I was going to come over and then got stuck with no babysitter. My brother was supposed to be here and then that changed. It'll be another year or so before I can take off for a couple of hrs and leave her alone. :)
In the name of keeping these kids safe, Hurley and his posse saw to it that these kids were harmed in a manner that the alcohol itself doesn't seem to have harmed. All this conjecture about Baltimore being so dangerous and this dunken (not confirmed) girl potentially being raped is nonsense. The fact is, no one was harmed by the alcohol or the city of Baltmore. The only party harming these 7 kids is the community that supposedly wants to protect them with more supervision. And of course, this event trickles down to the kids who are just from Barrington who don't drink and will suffer more persecution simply because they are from Barrington.
Hurley ought to watch out. He is going to please Buzz Guida and his little puppet, Jim Hasenfus. But he is going to offend the kids and parents he serves. It is pathetic how he pants on the laps of his superiors.
Opps must still be napping its not over yet.
Jack
I'm a little curious about the rape comment, I don't believe that was mentioned in the article. The fact that the only result was probably a bad hangover doesn't take away from the fact that these kids were committing a crime just being in possession of the alcohol.
I am sure their parents might have a different opinion about their kids being unsupervised long enough to get drunk and if not for a phone call by one of the students this incident may have blossomed into something really dangerous. Damned if they do or don't right. If no one did anything about this there would be a serious uproar about why not, since they did, now we have people saying kids will be kids let it go. When do you teach personal responsibility? After someone gets hurt or killed?
Remember Kathy Borgia, the teacher from Bristol? No one got hurt or killed so far......
The other 49 kids on this trip had a lot of fun and a great experience, FBLA is a great organization and had an unfortunate mishap. The two chaperons were focused on having fun and getting involved in great experiences
As far as Baltimore's reputation is concerned it is not nonsense and is very relevent to the lack of supervision of these kids. That city is dangerous for a large adult male like myself who can well take of himself, naive high school kids wouldn't have a chance.
I think that is the problem most people are having with this, there were only two chaperons for that many kids. That is probably the only reason this happened and should be corrected for next years trip.
the chaperons were not the problem this was done in a room no matter how many chaperons there are none of them can walk in the room whenever they would like
Got to agree with you on the Danger in baltimore there jaqdadi I decided to read the Baltimore Sun today.
BALTIMORE SUN
NOVEMBER 17, 2009
Murder and other mayhem
It appears to be a quiet morning in the city, but Monday brought some grim crime news. Baltimore had 13 killings in 15 days, pushing the count past the 200 mark and toward the 2008 number of 234, which was a 20-year low.
In today's paper, Baltimore Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld addresses the numbers, saying he less worried about the monthly totals and more concered with patterns in the statistics. Several of the killings in November, he said, were premeditated. He's right, in that we've gone through several periods this year with a week or more without a killing, only to see a spike.
Not a place I would send these students with only 2 chaperones they needed an Army Platoon. They were very lucky nothing serious happened
Jack
Why would the Barrington Times even write an article about this story? They have no reason to be involved. Mr. West and Ms. Warlop are great chaperones and they have no reason to take any blame for this, they did a great job supervising. I know for a fact that the kids brought the alcohol from home, they were not allowed to roam the streets and find alcohol. The students are the only ones that can blamed for this.
agreed Mr. West and Ms. Warlop are the best chaperons possible and this would have happened no matter what city the conference took place in
To give a common sense thought
Well I believe that there should have been more chaperones on this outing to me is of great concern I Have respect for Mr. West and Ms. Warlop for doing a great job in stopping a tragedy with these students. The fact that these 2 chaperones with all the responsibilty they had were able to find and stop this deserves compliments for a job well done.
How many times during spring break do we hear about drunk kids falling from balconies and other such things. Think about that if anyone wants to place any blame on Mr. West and Ms. Warlop they did a superb job and again thank you.
Jack
FBLA is an excellent organization and should not be judged on the stupid mistakes of a few members, just a few weeks ago they hosted a very succesful golf tournament to benefit the March of Dimes chairty. It was put on by highly respectable young adults who will most certainly be the future leaders of our society. They do a great deal for the community and we should be thankful and acknowledge the hard work of these high schoolers. The community should continue its support of this organization!
This article is contradicting
-At some point during the conference, chaperones checked on one of the rooms and discovered six students to be in possession of alcohol.
-According to sources, during the evening of Nov. 7 a small group of Barrington students had some alcohol in their hotel room. One of the students, a female, became intoxicated and then called her home in Barrington. One of her family members, apparently nervous about the girl’s condition, called one of the FBLA chaperones who went to check on the girl. Upon entering the room, the chaperone discovered the alcohol.
Which one is it? reliabilty is questionable.
its the second one
Doesn't mattter how many chaperones were there, they're still gonna do it. When I went to BHS in the 70's we went on a field trip...had tons of chaperones...and tons of booze! Hid it in the back of the toilet..no one ever checked...Gonna happen no matter how many "supervisors" are there....
The point of this particular problem is that these kids were part of a larger group representing future business leaders. There is a requirement to not consume alcohol under the age of 21, aside from general laws and school laws. We are seeing right here in this thread the problem with conforming to that rule. People don;t take underage drinking seriously enough. Sure it can be said that kids will be kids.
This wasn't a field trip to the zoo, it was a yearly conference on young upcoming business leaders. What kind of message is it sending to the younger ones coming up if we just let it go, as well as not reporting it or critisizing those who do? Some of the posts here are being very critical of whether or not this should have been in the news at all. Well I happen to believe it should be and it is indicative of a very serious and continually growing issue with our children.
If a school bus fight between preteens is newsworthy enough to be in this paper then surely this qualifies.
If chaperons don't have the ability to enter rooms at will then why are they there. I don't believe they should be walking at unanounced, but they should be able to check and make round every couple of hrs.
These Barrington yuppie parents seem to have something in common with the welfare queens of South Providence. Both are too self-absorbed to care about their children.
jaqladi, your last post was a good one. Made me think about the overall direction our future leaders are heading and the current climate of their grooming to be good citizens.
As far as the buffoonery of continually questioning my military service, regardless of thread topic, I could care less. It is the babbling of the insecure, jealous, and simple minded.
If your really concerned about an 'impostor', I suggest you contact the FBI, as it is a Federal crime to even verbally fraudulently claim military service.
Tell the Special Agent to subpoena my registration record with EastBayRI.com, which contains my real email with my real name, and cite The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 as your reason for reporting this. Good luck, monkeys!
(Oh, and be sure to tell them that I claim to be a Marine, have received a KDSM, NUC, MUC, Good Conduct, Sea Service Deployment ribbon with two stars, National Defense ribbon, Southwest Asia Service Medal, Kuwait Liberation Medal: Awarded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait Liberation Medal:Kuwait, three Letters of Commendation, and a Letter of Appreciation. I am also authorized to wear the Rifle Expert Badge, 4th Award, and Pistol Expert Badge, along with one hash mark on my dress uniform sleeve. I also have on my wall abut 15 or so specialized training completion certificates to include JEST in the Philippines, SERE school, Flight Deck & Hangar Deck Fire Fighting, Military Operations on Urban Terrain, Terrorism Counter-Actions For Marines, etc, etc.)
That's just my military service....anything else from you nitwits, lest you continue to try to lead others here astray about me?
Shocking.... Drunk Barrington High School Kids... I guess I really can't call it BORINGton anymore, they party more than I do!
A teen drinks who is a member of the FBLA...so you assume that the direction of their leadership skills are is question? They are teens...I'm sure CBLA ( Current Business Leaders of America)...drank a beer when they were teens too. Too judge their futures on their actions of today is ridiculous....Judge...thats the Barrington thing to do. People should sit back and judge themselves first...always eager to jump on everyone else!
I agree Lgfire the organization FBLA has nothing to do with this other than being the host. The fault is the kids plain and simple. 6 out of 50 well really isnt that much and since the 6 were caught with the help and diligence of the chaperones and disiplined accordingly all in all it worked out and the system worked. End of story as they say.
Jack
The chaperons were called by a concerned parent and advised of something going on, if it weren't for that they would not have known it was going on. There are definitely problems with the supervision side of this. These kids brought the booze from home according to someone who claims to know. If thats true then this was a planned event and not spur of the moment. Perhaps because they were aware of the limited supervision they knew they could get away with it. And they would have but for the girl who called her parents. Which I might add she was in a room with boys unsupervised.
Aren't they underage? Shouldn't there have been better controls in place to at least keep room doors open if they were going to mingle. These questions, and I am sure I am not the only one asking, need to be answered to keep something like this, or worse, from happening in the future.
A five day suspension is a serious thing that will be in their permanent record that most likely will influence any scholarships or college admissions. One woman and one man for a group of 55 high school kids on a multi day trip to a city like Baltimore is not enough, obviously. Knowing that kids will act this way when they get the chance there should have been more foresight. Only six got caught, whether or not more were involved is really irrelevent. The fact that FBLA does a lot of good work is irrelevent. What is relevent is the fact that this could have had a more serious outcome and it is just luck that it didn't. If that girl hadn't called home and the parent hadn't called the chaperons then this could have been a bigger problem very easily.
This was one unfortunate event that happened in a hotel room on one night after the rooms had been checked. People have no right to be commenting bad things about Barrington or FBLA as an organization. I want to make it clear that there were FIVE (5) chaperones on this trip, FIVE. Not the two that this article faulsly claims. There were 3 other chaperones that are not affiliated with BHS but are involved with the FBLA. This has nothing to do with supervision. Students were not allowed to roam free out into Baltimore. They needed to be in the hotel at all times. If they were leaving they were with all chaperones. Nobody that was not directly involved with this conflict or doent know the facts should be commenting on this. It was wrong of the Barrington Times to even write this article
If that is correct, that there were five chaperons then it is even worse because with that many chaperons they should have been able to catch something like this. Maybe you can justify one or two kids, but six teenagers partying and not one of the five chaperons caught wind of it. Maybe actual parents need to go on this trip in the future.
Im sure these kids were not PARTYING!! If they were trying to pull this stunt off then they needed to be very quiet. They were in a hotel room late at night trying to do something illegal. The chaperones were doing there best and it is really difficult to catch kids doing this at 4 in the morning. They put a lot of trust in the kids and they acted irresponsibly. The chaperones did there best for being outnumbered by so many.
It is absolutely irresponsible to think that with a large group of kids that age that some of them won't attempt something. It is human nature, especially with young adults, to push the limits. These kids are to blame, but this wouldn't have happened with better supervision. I agree that the comments here would have been different if this had been reported that way. I will wait to see if the paper changes that info before I take anybody's word for that.
In all actuality this is a minor incedent. It is only the high degree of possibility of a more serious incedent that I get concerned about. As another poster stated, accidents happen all the time with situations such as this. People falling off balconies, etc... That would be my main concern with something like this.
jaqdadi. SHUT UP! Everyone has had enough of your comments. They are not helping ANYTHING! You do not know the people that brought the students on the trip. SO STOP! They are great people and they did their best with everything. There was absolutly no partying happening on this trip. Who are you to make judgements on people?
I think you just stated the problem, "being outnumbered by so many". Are you serious, six teenagers drinking don't make a perty. Please that is ridiculous. What are you saying that their need for alcohol is so great they sat in a hotel room without playing music and just drank.
Only commenting on the story and the other comments. It is obvious you are a kid so i'll be nice.
This is a public forum and no one has the right to tell anyone to shut up. If so there would be several in here that I would be happy to say thet to. You don't have to read this thread if you can't take it.
Well thats exactly what they did. You are going by the facts of this article which has so many flaws. The writer of this article was not even thinking about all the people that he would be affecting. He does not know the fact of the situation and he should be ashamed for writing it. I know the article is all you can go by but it is mostly false.
wow, if the state forces county-wide regionalization someday, I'm not sure the Mt. Hope kids should be forced to go to scool with these bad influences.
WOW, 55 comments!! You did good, Josh! This is what you go to school for journalism for???
Josh, how much did you drink and smoke in high school? How about the rest of you? Tell me you didn't drink alcohol or try marijuana or other things in high school. Stop being hypocrites.
Yes, Alcohol and drugs should not be tolerated in high school! Mr. Hurley. Mr. Messore and Mr. Varone did the right thing and took the appropriate actions. Why does Josh have to slam Barington by making this high school situation into his BIG ARTICLE? Why do we get 55 comments on this? This happens in other schools... it doesn't make the news. The teachers and the parents deal with it and occasionally a kid learns. As far as only having 2 chaperones... I don't know what the policy was / is. It actually sounds like they did their jobs. They stopped the problem and dealt with it. I guess they will get at least 55 more chaperones for the next school event. If you can all complain about the problem after the fact.. will you be part of the solution before the next event??? or will you just continue to complain??
I urge all reading this post to go without drugs or alcohol for the next 3 months. PEACE!!
55 comments is hardly anything to be concerned about. A drop in the proverbial bucket. How much anybody had to drink or smoke in high school is irrelevent. I for one have never been suspended from school for anything and had my first drink around the age of fourteen.
This isn't just about drinking. This is about a group of supposed future business leaders that had a few of their group screw up. They couldn't even follow the rules for a few days representing their community in another city. That should be the focus. Not whether or not they are doing something we have all done.
There is a time and place for everything and this was not the time or place for this sort of behavior. The chaperons didn't do their jobs. Their job was to prevent this sort of thing. Not to be called by a parent in a different state to tell them what was happening.
I disagree jaqdadi the chaparones did their job to the best of their ability since there were only 2 of them that is not their fault. The fault is whoever determined 2 chaparones was sufficient for 50 teenagers, in the end at least it turned out well and no tragedy happened, that is something to be thankfull for.
All in all it is much ado about nothing anymore and perhaps the powers that control sending teens to events like this will learn a lesson. Lets hope so.
Jack
Perhaps, perhaps, however it is getting late and i've had enough of this one for tonight.
you and me both I would be able to stay up later but someone I'm not saying who mind you. But they woke me from my daily old man nap LOL
Jack
The chaperons did a great job, everyone had a lot of fun and this mistake happened one of the four nights we were staying there, its the only thing that did happen and everyone else had fun. Everyone is looking past the fact that this was a small mistake on a long and enjoyful trip, us kids had lots of fun
I do agree that the vast majority of this delegation behaved well and the few that caused this problem are just that, a few. My comments are only geared toward an appreciation of the fact that kids will try ro stretch the limits and have to be monitored for just this sort of thing. I am sure that the chaperons did not intend or encourage any behavior such as this.
Chaperons on a trip of this sort should be aware of those kids that have the potential to behave this way and pay closer attention.
When I was in school and we would go on trips the teachers would keep the kids they thought were the most troublesome closer to them. For instance at the front of the bus so they would be less likely to do something foolish. Perhaps next time they might have a parent or chaperon in the next room to kids that are more bold and capable of stretching the limits.
Okay
so they are Future Business "Leaders" of America...and some of these leaders thought nothing of violating several laws and bringing alcohol on the trip! AND many of these post are defending their actions.
And you wonder where Bernie Madoff and the other scam artists not to mention the AIG/Lehman/Bear Sterns "leaders" got their starts.
Laws should apply only to the lower classes! After all these Barrington Students' parents can afford better lawyers.
oh really? ALL barrington students parents cant afford better lawyers. Thats pretty stereotypical.. wouldnt you think?
