Nine Brandywine students sent home early from school trip to Netherlands

Published 3:45 am Friday, March 31, 2006

By By JAN GRIFFEY / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Nine Brandywine High School students were sent home Thursday during a school-sponsored trip to the Netherlands, said Gary Rider, Brandywine Community Schools superintendent.
Rider said students violated a contract to not drink alcohol while on the trip. He said the violation occurred outside the trip's planned activities.
The students were about a week into a two-week-long planned trip, part of a student exchange program. Students from the Netherlands were at Brandywine this past fall.
Part of that contract included that students who violated it would be sent home at their parents' expense.
Two of 12 students remain in the Netherlands, he said. “One student who was not required to come back chose to return home.”
Most of the students on the trip were upperclassmen - juniors and seniors.
Dave Roeder, a Brandywine social studies teacher, is the trip's sponsor. During the student exchange, the Brandywine students were living with their host families.
“I think everyone is disappointed and sorry that this happened,” Rider said. “It's important for future groups, for our students in general, to understand that as a school, if we do have a set of rules, it's important for us to follow them. That's a big part of what we need to do as a school to help educate kids.”