Hello Grade 11/12 Parents,

Some of you may be aware of  “Grad Trips” planned for this January and for Spring Break 2013, sponsored by a companies called S-Trip and Breakaway Tours.  These are not Centennial School trips, and they have no affiliation with the school whatsoever.  Recently a representative from S-Trip met with a group of our students for a trip to the Dominican Republic.

Sales representatives from the company contact students in the schools to recruit their classmates for these trips.  Often the recruitment happens around school or on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  We do not sanction or allow these meetings to occur at school, and are concerned that some of our graduates go on these trips.  We are also concerned that some students represent the nature of this trip to their parents as school sanctioned.  Again, this is not the case.

Over the last few years,  over 200 high school students from the Tri-Cities have traveled to the Dominican Republic and Big White, and or other locales. Many students reporting back to us relayed that there was  little or no adult supervision from the tour operators, indicated to us that many students vandalized  property, and were most definitive, that alcohol consumption by minors was rampant. Two years ago in  a trip to the Dominican Republic, a few students contracted viral meningitis, and returned to Canada very ill.     

We know that if our own children were considering such a trip, we would want to make an informed decision about whether or not they should go.  We see it as our duty to look after the well-being of our students at all times.

We would suggest to you, that should your child show interest in going on the trip, that you have a very frank conversation about its nature, and that you thoroughly research the proposal before deciding.

Once again, we do not have any affiliation, responsibility or relationship with these companies, and these are not school sponsored trips.  All school trips abroad have very strict protocols and guidelines to ensure student safety, and parent meetings are an absolute requirement. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of the administrators at the school.

Sincerely

Robert Zambrano

Principal

Robert Zambrano

Principal

Centennial School

604-936-7205