Some of you may be aware of a Grad trip planned for Spring Break 2011, by a company called S-Trip.  This is not a Pinetree Secondary School trip, and has no affiliation with the school whatsoever.

Sales representatives from the company contact students in the schools to recruit their classmates for this trip.  Often the recruitment happens at 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.

This past Spring Break, an S-Trip group traveled to the Dominican Republic, and nearly 200 high school students from the Tri-Cities went on the trip. A few students contracted viral meningitis, and it is our understanding that there was little or no adult supervision on site, and that alcohol consumption was rampant.  We know that if our children were considering such a trip, we would want to make an informed decision about whether they should go or not.  We see it our duty to look after the well-being of our students at all times.

We would suggest 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.

Sincerely,

Mr. McCullough

Principal