By: Kamaljit Forbes December 2018 - Just a Barbadian and Jamaican concoction with a minor obsession with Avatar: The Last Airbender and BTS.

Yep, you heard it here folks: the ski trip is canceled. The School District of Philadelphia no longer approves of it, even though, for years, the Ski Trip has been a tradition of Carver. Why is it canceled? Why now? How do students and staff feel about this? Does this interfere with our human rights as stated by the United Nations?

Many students, like myself, have never attended the ski trip, but were excited to try it this year. Others have never missed a year. Unfortunately, this disappointing news will affect a lot of students.

Kelly Garcia, 11th Grade

How many times have you been on the ski trip?

I went there for my first year last year, so once.

Explain your experience while listing the pros and cons. Would you go again?

Yeah, I would go again.

How do you think the ski trip has had an impact on the Carver community?

I think in a way it made us come together and have a good time together, like we went far from the school and we had our own time with our friends and built knew memories so I feel like it brought me and my friends together.

The ski trip is canceled. Why do you think the School District of Philadelphia would decide to cancel the trip after all of these years?

They did?

Umm.. I’m not sure why. I don’t think the ski trip was a problem. Nobody was hurt and it’s a reasonable price to go and have fun. I don’t know why they would do that.

How do you feel about the cancellation? How do you think it will affect Carver?

When you told me I was actually kind of shocked. I was like, “Wait, why?” I was really looking forward to going this year, but overall I feel very disappointed. As a result, there’s not going to be an opportunity that will make us have as much fun as we did in the ski trip.

Do you have any additional thoughts?

I’m just overall kind of bummed out about it. I’m really upset about that.

Aziz Al-khalil, 10th Grader

How many times have you been on the ski trip?

Just this once.

Explain your experience while listing the pros and cons. Would you go again?

Yes I would go again. The reason I wanted to go again is because last year I had a great time with it. It was just kind of a new experience for me so I was hoping I could go again. The pros: it was just a thrilling experience because, again, it was my first time. The cons about it: I don’t know. I did get hurt a couple times, but not too much. It wasn’t anything to fatal. But I feel like pros definitely outweigh the cons.

How do you think the ski trip has had an impact on the Carver community?

I think it’s a good thing.

The ski trip is canceled. Why do you think the School District of Philadelphia would decide to cancel the trip after all of these years?

I would almost want to say it’s because of injuries, maybe. I’m not too certain. Maybe money issues too because you do have to set it up and that takes a lot, so I believe that’s the reason why.

How do you feel about the cancellation? How do you think it will affect Carver?

I was pretty disappointed when I first heard it. I just heard it, so I was pretty disappointed. One of my friends, last year, he couldn’t really go, so I was kind of bummed out because last year was my first year here so I didn’t really know anyone too much. I got to know people during the ski trip that I talk to now this year. So I was also hoping that my friend would go this year and now I have to go tell him it’s cancelled so it’s kind of disappointing.

Do you have any additional thoughts?

I’m just hoping it comes back next year. That’s about it.

The Carver community does not only consist of students, so what do the teachers think about this?

K Latchford, Past Ski Trip Chaperone

How many times have you been on the ski trip?

I don’t know. I want to say, maybe, at least five times. But I don’t remember because I have a bad memory. But I have a good memory of all the trips.

Explain your experience while listing the pros and cons. Would you go again?

Yes, I would go again. I would say the cons are minimal. I think that it’s tough to get the groups rounded up and here at school this early, but it’s important to get up there early. The food is a definite con. They order this food that’s terrible. The risk of injury is a con. One year I broke my shoulder and other years I’ve had to go to the hospital because kids got concussions. The pros are it’s A) It’s just awesome to be out of school for the day, B) It’s even doubly awesome to be out in nature on a mountain, seemingly in the wilderness. You’re on a ski resort so it’s not really that wild, but it gets the kids into an environment/place that many haven’t been before so it’s good for the kids’ experience, things that are outside of their comfort and normal zone. They learn something about themselves because it’s not easy to ski if you have never skied and so kids that figure it out, it’s like a personal challenge. It’s a conquest type of thing, learning how to do something that you maybe thought you would never could do or would do.

How do you think the ski trip has had an impact on the Carver community?

It’s been a positive impact. I mean, everyone looks forward to it every year, at least staff. I can’t remember correctly but I think our largest groups are usually the youngest and sometimes the kids, as they get older, we lose a lot of the juniors and seniors, but we get some. I think that the thing that would be nice is if we could retain some of the larger groups of the older kids, but a lot of the kids do it. The experience, it’s not that they didn’t have fun, sometimes they don’t if it rains, but they were like, “I’m definitely not doing that again.” It’s kind of like Outward Bound. They’re like, “Yeah, it wa a great experience but I don’t think I’d ever want to go camping for a week.”

The ski trip is canceled. Why do you think the School District of Philadelphia would decide to cancel the trip after all of these years?

It’s not “educational.”

How do you feel about the cancellation? How do you think it will affect Carver?

I think it sucks. I think Carver will recover just fine. And I’m sure we have other things that we do. I mean, the ski trip was not everything, It was just an awesome thing.

Do you have any additional thoughts?

No, I’m just surprised. You’re just telling me now. We don’t know, nobody knows this. This is a breaking story. But it sucks. I think it’s pretty crappy. I look forward to it every year and I’m disappointed in the district for not seeing, I guess, the value in these opportunities. So much more learning is made outside the classroom than in the classroom.

The People in Charge

Here we will see the opinions of those who are in charge.

Ted Domers, Principal

How long has the ski trip been around?

The ski trip has been around for as long as I have been here, so that means at least six years but I don't know how longs it was before I got here.

How would you say the ski trip has had an impact on the Carver community?

I think two things. One, it's a great way to build school spirit and to build community and it's a great for students to and staff to connect with each other outside of the building which I think is really important. The other way is that it gives students an opportunity to do something that they may not be able to do do otherwise.

What are the major pros and cons of the ski trip?

The pros are the the way that it builds community with the school and the opportunity and the experience it provides the students. The cons are the disruption that it takes to the entire school. It pretty much means a full day without instruction that day because teachers are covering and others. The other con is the risk for injury that exists.

Why do you think the School District of Philadelphia would want to cancel the trip after all these years?

My understanding is because of the risk that is involved.

How do you feel about the possible cancellation of the ski trip? How will it affect Carver?

I think it's a shame that it's canceled. I'm not happy that it was canceled, but I can understand the School District's perspective on it. I think that in time we will find something to replace it and continue to have ways to build school community and give students great experiences.

Do you have any additional thoughts?

No

How do you think the ski trip has made an impact on the Carver community?

I think the ski trip affords students an opportunity to get out of their comfort zones. I think that, in addition, someday in life, when they're in college or when they're somewhere else, students might be offered an opportunity to go skiing with friends or do something that, even though it's just a fun activity, it could be used as networking. It could also be a way to make deeper friendships that end up mattering when you end up applying for jobs later. If our students never had a chance to do that, that they might be less likely to attend when they're older. So I think that by being able to push themselves out of their comfort zone and do something really cool and fun and different in high school it sort of emboldens them to do those kind of different things later in life.

How would you describe your experience with the ski trip, both organizing it and at the trip itself? Is it all worth it?

I have loved doing the ski trip for the last ten or so years. It's exhausting and can be difficult to organize. It's one of the few trips where there's actually a fairly reasonable possibility that someone is going to get a minor injury because it's skiing/snowboarding. It's varied in years where we had as few as forty kids and I think last year we had close to a hundred or maybe more, maybe it was a hundred and twenty, it was a lot of people. It's definitely an organizational headache but the day of, it's really fun and exciting. It’s one of those days where I have to get up at four thirty in the morning to make it to the ski trip, to get here on a bus, ride a cheese bus for a couple hours and then see kids have a great time and be scared and overcome those challenges. So it’s a really exciting fun day. It’s also really exhausting to organize. It’s definitely a handful, which is the reason why I passed it off to Mr. Garcia this year because, with a tiny little human in my house now, I decided I needed a little bit less extracurricular work.

Why do you think that, after all these years, the School District would decide to cancel this trip?

That’s a good question. I don’t think it’s because someone new is in charge. I did a little bit of research about who is in charge of risk management and it seems to be someone who has been in charge for the past five years, but I could be wrong. Maybe there were promotions. Maybe something else happened on a different trip. I know that is it two years ago there was that bus accident going to D.C or Baltimore with students from Henry School. I don’t know if the School District is trying to limit their liabilities by taking fewer risks. I think it’s unusual because both the bus company and Jack Frost Big Boulder have all of the insurance certifications required to ensure that even if something bad did happen, the insurance is there to make sure that it’s covered. I understand the District doesn’t want to make themselves liable for dangerous things, but I don’t know why they would say no. They’ve always said no to things like amusement parks, but skiing and snowboarding has always been in the purview of trips that were acceptable as long as you provided acceptable documentation, and I know we have so I don’t know.

How do you feel about the cancellation? How do you think it will affect Carver?

Well, I felt angry when it first happened and, as often, my first impulse with anger, my first response was, “Well, I’m just going to argue with someone until they say that it’s going to be fine an we get to do it.” I have a little less fight in me this year then I usually do because I sleep less because, again, tiny human. But I think that any opportunity that our students aren't afforded negatively affects them, even if they don’t know it. It hurts me when I see that suburban districts or other districts have these trips and opportunities that we don’t have as a school district because it is harder to offer opportunities to students when you’re a larger school district. With so many students in our district with so many schools, I understand why, from the District’s perspective, they have to set stark rules because they can’t possibly be watching everything all the time. It’s not like we’re a district with one high school and four elementary schools and that’s it, so they can’t make easy exceptions because there are just so many schools. With that said, I think that any time an opportunity is not provided to my students and to our students the same way that it would be to other districts or other students in other districts, I find it really hurtful and unfair. And I know that life isn’t fair but I think that part of our job as educators is to even the playing field as much as we can. And even though it’s not a traditionally educational opportunity, the ski trip is an educational opportunity: it’s an opportunity to expand your horizons, it’s an opportunity to learn something new and to fail at something and still enjoy it which is a really important lesson. So I think not having that is taking something away from our school and our students.

Do you have any additional thoughts?

Umm… the ski trip is awesome and we should have a ski trip and the Journalism club is pretty dope and the Journalism class is pretty awesome too.

Actuary Input

Josiah Findley, a fellow senior at Carver, spoke with an actuary to discuss the risks that the School District could face with the Ski Trip, which could lead us closer to an answer of why the trip is cancelled.

Here he sums up what he said:

"Regarding how much risk the school district can handle, there are many factors that come into play. More importantly, it’s how much they’re willing to handle. Risk appetite guides how much downside you’re willing to accept with the chance of getting the upside. Or, alternatively, how much the upside has to be for you to accept the downside. The upsides are that students have a great time skiing, it builds school spirit (positive feelings associated with a school activity, right?), and all of that. Downside, a student falls off of a chair lift, and the school is on the hook for medical expenses plus general damages (general damages are also called “pain and suffering” – money above the cost to repair the damage).

Two things in it could drive the decision to cancel the trip: frequency (i.e., kids are twice as likely to break their legs as last year) or severity (i.e., kid breaks a leg and it costs double what it did last year). Frequency and severity drive actuarial calculations – frequency is how often things happen, severity is how much they cost when the happen. His guess is that severity drove the decision – medical costs in most areas are increasing faster than baseline inflation.

Furthermore, if one was to do a waiver, if that waiver is written with any uncertainty regarding something that happens, a student could still sue the

Courts have also been known to throw out pieces of contracts if they feel they’re unreasonable (or on a whim; courts can do that). So that waiver could potentially be totally disregarded."

Our Human Rights...

This month's edition to the Carver Times is in honor of the 70th Anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights. This article is a perfect example of the 24th article of the document. It states, "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay." The simplified version calls it "the right to play." It can be argued that taking away Carver's Annual Ski Trip is the School District's way of interfering with our right to play.