Chaperone Duct-tapes Students' Hotel Room Doors Shut

[DiscerningSoul]

I did security at a school and I know when they went for overnights out of state they hired a guard(not me of course).
I would do the tape trick with scotch tape sometimes to make sure the doors in the back weren't opened while I was across campus locking other doors.
Someone would have to be really weak not to be able to get out of a door with duck tape on it.

[fides quarens intellectum]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1534822' date='May 20 2008, 01:28 PM']This is pretty standard youth ministry procedure.[/quote]

that's what i was going to say.

[quote name='Lil Red' post='1534826' date='May 20 2008, 01:43 PM']+J.M.J.+
i've actually never had to do something like this. my students know me and know the penalties if they happened to be out of their room. never had a problem yet. [/quote]

ooh - chills... i agreed to take some "cousins" once with our group down to Florida on a beach retreat - tape very necessary.

[kujo]

[quote name='DiscerningSoul' post='1535435' date='May 20 2008, 11:05 PM']Someone would have to be really weak not to be able to get out of a door with duck tape on it.[/quote]

Duck tape?!?!?!?

[img]http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/data/569/26850DuckTape.jpg[/img]

[fides quarens intellectum]

Now that i think about it, once, on the last night of a trip, all the teens got together, pulled off their little pieces of tape from their doors, then went to my room and used the tape pieces to write, "We love you, Fides." (well, with my real name). i love youth ministry.

[MissScripture]

[quote name='Autumn Dusk' post='1535011' date='May 20 2008, 03:54 PM']The mud of WYD '02!!!! Quite an experiance. Were you far back enough to smell the porta potties...UGGG HORRIBLE!

And as far as steubenville...as many times as I've been there I've always used the gym. Its just better...plus there are other chaperones who stay up all night patrolling. You'd have to be on crack to try something.[/quote]
Our leader kept us on the asphalt, specifically because he didn't want to deal with mud. Apparently in Rome he had gotten to deal with it and wasn't up for a repeat.

[quote name='Autumn Dusk' post='1535105' date='May 20 2008, 05:08 PM']No one had a tent...if I remember correctly they were banned.[/quote]
People had tents. Our group didn't, but some guy next to us did, and let a few of us got to sleep in it (me being one of them). The rest of our group had tarps set up.

[quote name='Deb' post='1535228' date='May 20 2008, 07:08 PM']I guess I just look at it this way. If your child is on high school trip and you let your child know what you expect of them, you shouldn't have to have their doors taped.

If you don't trust them, don't let them go.

I guess I was just saying that I was lucky to grow up where our parents did not HAVE to worry that if I was downtown after dark I would get killed or that if I went out running the neighborhood for six hours on Saturday, I had to be checked on every five minutes by cell phone. How soul killing is all of that?

If you immediately put sneaking out of your room to go making out with someone with getting killed, how freaky is that?

Also, if the tape does not keep anyone from getting out, just lets them know someone did, how will that stop anyone from doing anything anyway? Fear of the broken tape?
It just all seems so overprotective and stifling to me.

No, I don't work with kids but, if I did and I let them know what they would and would not be doing, I would know what they would and would not be doing.

By the way, I would have been the kid sneaking out but, I would have done it without messing with the silly tape anyway. Word[/quote]
a) The way a teenager behaves at home and the way a teenager behaves on a trip half way across the country can be two very different things.
b)If the parents are this upset that their children could've supposedly been trapped during a fire, how upset do you think they'd be if their kids DID leave and something happened to them. The school would be in so much trouble. And sadly, many parents aren't responsible enough to know what their child is apt to do anyway.
c)They don't usually have enough chaperones to know what everyone is doing all the time.
d)I do agree with you that if the kids want to get out, they will find another way. I know of a guy in my brother's class who snuck out the hotel window and climbed down balconies to go out and buy some sort of game console.

[Theoketos]

I would say that the tape was a bit much and not in the spirit of true leadership.

That being said, these people are victimizing themselves now.

[DiscerningSoul]

[quote name='kujo' post='1535443' date='May 20 2008, 11:10 PM']Duck tape?!?!?!?

[img]http://www.tractorbynet.com/photos/data/569/26850DuckTape.jpg[/img][/quote]

AFLAK !!!

[Lil Red]

[quote name='fides quarens intellectum' post='1535441' date='May 20 2008, 08:08 PM']ooh - chills... i agreed to take some "cousins" once with our group down to Florida on a beach retreat - tape very necessary.[/quote]
+J.M.J.+
and i guess if i thought there would be a problem with a youth, i would take that youth aside before the trip, and make sure that youth knew the consequences of breaking my rules.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Theoketos' post='1535640' date='May 21 2008, 12:55 AM']I would say that the tape was a bit much and not in the spirit of true leadership.

That being said, these people are victimizing themselves now.[/quote]
How many kids have you chaparoned? Leadership has little to do with it, kids are kids and are because of their lack of judgement do not see the risks that their behavior involves.
God has always seemed to ordain you get one idiot with every trip.

[kujo]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1536141' date='May 21 2008, 01:42 PM']How many kids have you chaparoned? Leadership has little to do with it, kids are kids and are because of their lack of judgement do not see the risks that their behavior involves.
God has always seemed to ordain you get one idiot with every trip.[/quote]

Yup.

I would like to introduce myself as the person who was usually that idiot.

[Totus Tuus]

If the parents didn't want chaperones, why did they let the kids go with them? I do think it'd be wrong not to tell the kids they were going to tape the doors, though, just in case they did panic if they tried to leave for emergency/other legit. reason.

[kujo]

[quote name='Totus Tuus' post='1536215' date='May 21 2008, 02:39 PM']If the parents didn't want chaperones, why did they let the kids go with them? I do think it'd be wrong not to tell the kids they were going to tape the doors, though, just in case they did panic if they tried to leave for emergency/other legit. reason.[/quote]

The beauty of the tape is that it doesn't prevent the kids from leaving, but makes it so that, if they do so, it has to be for a good reason because they can't fix the tape when they go back in. It's gotta be for an emergency because there ain't no turning back!

[Totus Tuus]

[quote name='kujo' post='1536218' date='May 21 2008, 12:41 PM']The beauty of the tape is that it doesn't prevent the kids from leaving, but makes it so that, if they do so, it has to be for a good reason because they can't fix the tape when they go back in. It's gotta be for an emergency because there ain't no turning back![/quote]

Yeah, I understand that. I just think it'd be good for the kids to know that there WAS going to be tape on the door. Not an absolute necessity - but I am assuming they didn't know and that is the cause of this whole mess.

[StColette]

[quote name='Totus Tuus' post='1536230' date='May 21 2008, 01:50 PM']Yeah, I understand that. I just think it'd be good for the kids to know that there WAS going to be tape on the door. Not an absolute necessity - but I am assuming they didn't know and that is the cause of this whole mess.[/quote]

Most trips I've ever been on or heard of using this technique tell the kids ahead of time. Just to give them warning not to try anything because there will be proof that you did or tried to sneak out.

[Totus Tuus]

[quote name='StColette' post='1536249' date='May 21 2008, 01:05 PM']Most trips I've ever been on or heard of using this technique tell the kids ahead of time. Just to give them warning not to try anything because there will be proof that you did or tried to sneak out.[/quote]

Yeah, that's what I would think. I have never experienced the duct tape thing but it makes sense to me, especially if you've got a large group.

[CatholicCid]

I've had this done before... Honestly, we're not even sure we were "taped in" because everyone was too afraid of checking and actually breaking the tape.
I want to see a photo of this door... The article makes it sound like a door completely covered in a wall of duct tape that no man could pass.

Edited May 21, 2008 by CatholicCid

[Totus Tuus]

I think the photo that was posted was from the situation in question.

[prose]

I love how they say the doors were "sealed shut". Wow. That is a pretty lousy seal.

As for me, I have never had any problem travelling with youth, and I certainly haven't used duct tape. But, these are youth group kids, not a football team. And we always work in 2-3 hour shifts. So one person is up for 2 hours, then sleeps while another one takes over. I mean, with enough supervision, sometimes we only had to be up an hour each at night. I don't see why they didn't come up with a solution like that.

[CatholicCid]

[quote name='Totus Tuus' post='1536498' date='May 21 2008, 04:29 PM']I think the photo that was posted was from the situation in question.[/quote]

Wow, that's just silly then. Just turning the handle would probably have broken the tape.

[AngelofMusic]

I've gone on many a trip where they taped us in and really... it wasn't that hard to get out. We even broke through some tape one time when we needed assistance with one of our roommates! It's just duct tape people. Or scotch tape.

And I can almost GUARANTEE that those kids are reacting such because they were going to sneak out, couldn't, so they are playing on their mom's "protecting-my-baby" aspect.

Pssh. What a bunch of wimps.