This short article that you are about to read has become, without my intending it to be, the most controversial thing I have ever written.
It is about a bus trip I took to the Gulf of Mexico, sponsored by my kid's school - with about fifty pre-teens and first-year teenagers on board - as well as three or four parents and teachers... who all made the mistake of sitting in the front of the bus, where they were blind to what was going on behind them. I was the only one who sat in the back, and who had a clear view ahead of everything that was happening.
I did not go on this trip looking for trouble. Nor was I asked to be a chaperone. I went for one reason only: Because my daughter asked me to go.
I had never been on such a long trip with a bunch of kids who were almost teenagers before, and some of what I saw shocked me.
I wrote about it.
Some of what I wrote was funny, or so people have told me. One even said it was hilarious. But some of what I saw and wrote about was definitely not funny. Some of it scared me to death.
If you are the parent of a pre-teen or early teenager, prepare to have your eyes opened.
When we returned home, I wrote this story about what I had seen, heard, and witnessed.
When one of the teachers read it, the school changed its policy about the seating procedures for middle school kids on buses - and also as to where chaperons were to sit on future trips. After reading this story you may want to see what your school's policy is about such matters. And if it is not to your liking, you may want to get it changed.
Kids need to learn about sexuality. But that should not include what I saw and where I saw it. There is a time and a place for everything: on a bus in front of other kids, is not the right time nor place for sex education. Especially if the instructors are some of the kids themselves.
Basically, this story is about what some very young kids - not all by any means ...
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