Would you let your teenage daughter go on an outing to Aruba, or any other country for a HS graduation party?

We heard about Natalee Holloway and what might have happened to her. I wonder just how many other tragic things have happened on these senior travels that weren't as well publicized? Unwanted pregnancies, robbed, etc.. Be it girl or boy I think their much too young for these outing.

It's ridiculous to take the chance that everything will be just fine. The parents control the purse strings so they should use them with care. Young people are seldom wise and aren't expected to be.

Absolutely not. At that age , kids do not have mature judgement, they take part in very risky behaviors. Also, it is waaay to extravagant a gift for high school graduation. There are many more appropriate and safer gifts for a high school graduate.

Way too young. Thats what your 20s are for.

Coming from a young person.... when i'm older i'll let my daughter/son assuming the right supervision/arrangements are made. A lot of people complain because they didn't get the oppurtunity or didn't take the oppurtunity to go some place while they were young...

My child does not leave the country without me until age 18, period.

Preferably, age 21.

No way, no way... Traveling unsupervised (by adults) at that age is just toooooo dangerous. Let them make these decisions when they are graduating from college.

For my HS graduation I went on a family trip to Disney World and had a BLAST with my sister. That was almost 15 years ago. I guess times have changed, huh?

My daughter's school is offering a trip to Spain next summer through her Spanish class. Some of her friends are going, and she has been asking me if she can go, too. I am most likely NOT going to allow her to go, much for this same reason.

Part of the problem is that the drinking age is different in other countries. Because of America's party culture, our teens usually cannot handle being thrown into an environment like that, especially away from home where they may not be chaperoned well enough, they are tourists out for a good time, and there is also the "mob" mentality of a group of kids with all the negative peer pressure that goes along with that.

I have heard of several horror stories about these type trips such as gang rapes and teen pregnancies and such. You are right; it never makes the headlines unless somebody's dead, and there are plenty of other worst-case scenarios besides that.

Never!

Hell to the No!

yeah it think its ok to let them go out. its there judgement. Halloway was stupid enuff to leave a bar with 3 guys she didnt know and paid the price. as long as she is staying with friends and have a few guys there that arnt 105lbs wimp they should be fine. im from NJ and i drove half way across the country when i was out of highschool for a raod trip and that was in the year 2000.

Not unless it was STRICTLY supervised. Like the chaperones are having them all the time check in, be there at a certain time and traveling with a buddy or in a group.
If it was just "Mom ____ is going to Aruba and wants me to go with her. It would be a firm NO.

What would make any responsible adult think this is a safe thing to do? An 18 year old (no matter how mature they are) isn't in the state of mind to act in a mature and reasonable manner to protect themselves in a scenario like this. All that's going on is excessive partying, irresponsible sex, and dangerous activities. It's way too young of an age to embark on something like this. I still can't believe there are actually parents out there that not only let their kids do this, but pay the bill for it as well. It blows my mind.

After my high school graduation I went to work for the summer to save up money for college...and I think thats what everyone should do. Sure, have a graduation party with your friends and family, but thousands of dollars to be sent out of the country without supervision? NO WAY. I'm 23 and I would STILL be nervous about going overseas without people who have a little more experience than I do.

Natalee Holloway was 18 when she went on her HS graduation trip - legally an adult.

However, to be legally an adult is completely different from being competent to travel to a far-away locale and be responsible for one's self.

Anyone traveling to a foreign country should never find themselves alone in unfamiliar surroundings. Young people have a tendency to be too trusting, and therefore are at higher risk of being victims of unscrupulous and dangerous people.

Personally, I don't think I'd let my daughters go to another CITY, let alone another COUNTRY!

i went to israel for 5 weeks and london for one week when i was 17. nothing happened to any of us. or any of the other hundreds of kids who went on very similar trips. oh wait, i smoked a cigarette. not for the first time though, i picked that up at school. i went to california (by myself) when i was 18 to visit a friend, and we drove to LA alone, like a week after i graduated, and i went back the next year for 3 weeks. my friend and i went to belize for a week this year. nothing happened. (we're 23 currently) my sister went to brazil when she was still in high school. school shootings happen, should kids not go to school? should they not leave the house, because they could get hit by a car. or robbed on the street.

For a party, not unless I was chaperoning.

For a school trip that is completely supervised by teachers and is educational, yes. Educational trips are not "party" trips - they are specifically for education and there's a set schedule of classes, just as if they were in school back home. Ask the teachers who is chaperoning, what the class schedule is, what they are going to be doing, how much "unsupervised" free time they will have as tourists, etc.

One of my friends allowed her teenage son to go to London to observe Parliament for his political science class and my sister-in-law went to Spain for her Spanish class to be immersed in the language. Both described it as incredibly enriching and neither got in any kind of trouble.

My friend's son just got into an incredibly great college and was offered an opportunity to spend a year at University of London because of his experience there previously.

I think it also is an issue of trust with the parents. If one's child has had issues with being irresponsible previously then yes, it may not be a good idea. If the child is responsible and the supervision/course work is thoroughly investigated by the parent, I don't think a child should be denied an experience for an education trip to another country.

If parents are so worried about what their children are doing on these trips overseas, they can volunteer to be chaperons.

No, unless I went too.

Yes, because my children would be disciplined and would behave themselves properly. Those councilors on that Aruba trip were wreckless in allowing those kids to go wondering all over by themselves. Even into bars....

When I was young and my class went on field trips the teachers laid down the rules upfront...

Check-in is at 9pm! and again at 11pm with another possible at a random time.

At those times, the teachers would physically go to all of the assigned rooms and would knock on the door in order to look and to *see* all students that were assigned to that room...

THEN--- the teachers would put a piece of tape on the outside of the door to the frame (which gets broken if the door is opened.) In the morning, any room that is caught with a broken piece of tape that whole room gets sent back home immediately at the parents expense.

That's what my class was told-- and we had NO offenders because we knew what the consequences would be if we misbehaved.

If you tried that in America the parents would run and sue the school and teachers saying that students need to "express themselves" or something....

It depens, I am the guardian of a 15 year Old boy. (My Little Brother) and I let hem take a short school trip to St. kitts. I always finds out how many adults are going and also If the team has any parents that are team volunteers, I also found out where would they be hanging out, which restaurants etc etc. Its just a matter of just investigagting who, how, where before you answer yes or no. Soon he will be traveling abroad for university and I want him to learn responsibility and also leave him know I can trust him. He has gone on several trips with school and I never had a complain. The team have always have excessive amount of leaders. I believe that also home training has a lot to do with how far can one trust their teenage children.