Rules at the Convention

JEA/NSPA Student Conduct Guidelines and Rules

The Journalism Education Association and National Scholastic Press Association established student conduct guidelines and rules to ensure that all convention participants have a safe and enjoyable stay at the conference. The publications adviser must present these forms at registration. Please discuss the regulations, sign and return to the publications adviser before the trip.

• A 10PM curfew will be in effect every evening. Students should be in their own rooms and quiet at that time. They must remain in their own room for the rest of the night.

• All students should be accompanied by at least one other convention delegate at all times outside the hotel. Students should not be out on the streets at night without a chaperone.

• Drinking alcoholic beverages or taking illegal drugs is not allowed. No vapes, no smoking, no tobacco products. 

• All students are expected to wear their convention name badges at all times in the hotel. However, it is suggested that name badges not be worn outside the hotel.

• No students will be admitted to the convention without a school-approved adviser or chaperone.

• Advisers and chaperones are expected to know where their students are at all times. Advisers and chaperones are expected to enforce the curfew and quiet time.

• Rudeness to other hotel guests and hotel employees, misuse of or playing on elevators and excessive noise in the hotel rooms, halls or other public areas as well as all behavior that is dangerous or inappropriate, such as throwing anything out of windows, from open balconies or from escalators, is not acceptable and can lead to severe consequences to anyone involved.

• Accordingly, students found misbehaving will be asked to leave. Convention officials reserve the right to declare fees forfeit and to send students home at their parents’ expense should individual students’ behavior or delegations prove disruptive. Breaking the rules of this convention will result in disqualification from the contests and forfeiture of awards won.

• Advisers and their schools will be held liable for damage to hotel rooms and facilities done by students under their supervision. It is understood that by the act of registering students for the convention, the adviser assumes responsibility for the students’ behavior during the convention.

• Advisers must have written permission, which includes authorization for emergency medical treatment, before registering students for the convention.

Rules

The statements below, initiated as a result of convention experiences, provide refinement or elaborations of Journalism Education Association convention rules. 

Hotel behavior

• Students will be held liable for any damage they cause to hotel rooms and facilities.

• If the school receives a bill for damages to a hotel room, each student in the room will pay an equal percentage of the cost of the bill unless the student or students who caused the damage accept responsibility.

• Rudeness to hotel guests and hotel employees, misuse of or reckless behavior on the hotel elevators, excessive noise in any hotel area, destruction of property or any other inappropriate behavior is not acceptable. This kind of behavior can lead to expulsion from the hotel and/or criminal prosecution.

Movement in the hotel.

• No student is to leave his or her hotel room after curfew for any reason unless the publications adviser is notified of an emergency that requires leaving the room.
  Minor infractions of this rule may result in the student being excluded from future travel. Students involved in major infractions may be sent home.

• No student is to be in a hotel room of any person who is a part of another school’s delegation.

• No student is to leave the hotel without the knowledge and express consent of the adviser.

• No student is to leave the hotel after dark without an adult chaperone.

• No student will be off the floor of the hotel rooms or the convention meeting rooms without at least one other member of the school’s delegation.
  
  

• Any use or possession of alcohol or drugs is forbidden and will result in immediate expulsion from the convention, contacting of parents or guardians and immediately being sent home.

• Tobacco use or possession is prohibited.

• School policies regarding cigarettes, smoking, or vaping will be enforced during the trip.

• Students are not to smoke or vape at any time during the trip. Smoking and vaping is forbidden even in the privacy of the hotel room.

• Students must give their prescription medications to the adviser at the beginning of the trip and list any such medications on the district medical form.

Convention participation

• Students are expected to wear their convention name badges at all times while in the convention hotel. For security reasons, students should remove their name badges when leaving the hotel.

• Students are expected to attend a session during every session opportunity and will be asked to complete a session summary form.

• Students will be sent home for any violation of local, state or federal laws.

• Students may be sent home any time the adviser or chaperone thinks that the offender is too much of a security/trust risk to remain a part of the group. The offender’s parents will be called and asked to make arrangements to pick up the offender immediately. The offender will be delivered to the main lobby of the hotel. At this point, the offender is no longer associated with the group, and the school withdraws its responsibility for the student. If the offense committed is a crime, such as possession or use of controlled substances, local authorities will be notified and the offender will be turned over to them, at which time the school’s responsibility for the offender is terminated. Parents will be notified.

• (Parents) hereby authorize (their) credit card to be charged for a one-way airfare should (their) child violate these rules and need to be transported home for disciplinary reasons. (Parents) agree that the publications adviser and chaperones on the trip have the sole discretion to decide whether such action is necessary. Should the charge be refused, (parents) hereby agree to reimburse the teacher or parent who must charge (their) child’s flight to their own credit card.