Guam spree turns sour

At least 20 members of this year’s graduating class from Tinian High School are in hot water after they were caught drinking and smoking during a recent senior class trip to Guam.

The senior high school students were suspended for a week by their principal but their parents are also calling for sanctions against the teachers who accompanied the group to the U.S. territory.

A mother of one of the students, who asked not to be named, told the Saipan Tribune that her son had told her the teachers and a chaperone dragged the students into the situation. She said the teachers purchased the beer for the students.

The mother also wrote that the teachers and chaperone took the students to bars and strip clubs on Guam.

She said that it was through the rental company where the group loaned their vehicle that the school was able to find out about the students drinking and smoking spree.

An official of the rental company told the principal that the group left the car filthy, as some of the intoxicated students had thrown up.

Violi Aguiao, one of the parents of the suspended seniors and a member of the Parents Advisory Council, said she confronted school officials and told them that if they were suspending the students, they should also impose the same sanctions against the teachers and the chaperone.

She also said the school got advice from the legal counsel of the Public School System that the students involved who are members of the National Honor Society and Junior Reserved Officer Training Corps should be expelled from the groups.

Aguiao said the parents sought the assistance of the Board of Education on Tinian in an effort to lower the punishment for the children. She said the Tinian BOE told her that it was unfair for the senior students to be removed from the honor society and JROTC.

“BOE said these children worked really hard to get to be members of these organizations,” she said.

She said the teachers and chaperone should have stopped the children because they are adults. Aguiao warned they would talk to Tinian BOE again if no action would be taken against the teachers and the chaperone.

The parent who asked for anonymity confirmed this, saying her son has been kicked out of the honor society.

“Hence my child is now not eligible for a scholarship from NHS!” she said.

She further said her child and the other suspended students now have negative records for the rest of their lives due to the teachers and chaperone.

“I want justice for my child, my child told me that he did not join in with the others and there was nothing he could do because the chaperones told him [her son] to mind his own business,” she said.

She said she wants the teachers and the chaperone to be fired from their respective jobs and that they do not belong in a position where they should be guiding the students in attaining academic excellence and positive values.

The Saipan Tribune contacted the offices of THS principal Florine Hofschneider and vice principal Thelma Zing, but their respective staff said the officials were not available for comment. The identity of the teachers and chaperone who accompanied were provided by sources but are being withheld pending confirmation by Hofschneider.