No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service...and the Chicks.

I'd love to know what you think this blog is about after reading the title...because I am 100% positive you're wrong! This is about the most interesting school trip in the HISTORY of school trips.

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service...



This last Saturday morning our varsity show choir left for a weekend show choir trip at 3AM. Out of 46 students, 45 showed up on time. Impressive for a 3AM call time! But, we were missing one. The plan was to leave and make it work without them, but it just so happened that we drove out of town right by the student's house. SO, we call "Joe". No answer. We stop outside the house and I RUN around the house looking for a light (yep...good thing no cops drove by!). No light. Finally, we get a hold of his brother, and 3 minutes later...

He comes FLYING out of his house! Funny thing is, he has no shoes on, no shirt on, and is holding his pants up because they're barely zipped up! He ran to his car, grabbed shoes, a shirt and a blanket, and comes tumbling onto the bus. The bus was in an uproar, and I couldn't stop laughing for a good ten minutes. Pretty hilarious way to start out what ended up being a very LONG weekend! Unfortunately, I'm going to have to kick him out of show choir. This memory, however, will go down as one of my favorite moments in teacher history!


and the Chicks.

We checked in to the hotel around 1:30 PM after a long bus ride, a great performance, and a morning of watching show choirs. The average person on the trip had an average of 2 hours of sleep in the last 35 hours, so everyone was VERY tired. I got everyone settled, laid down the "hotel room" law, and TOOK A NAP! Our plan was to leave for the competition again at 4:30 PM, so at 3:45 I decided to just sit in the hallway and make sure everyone was following the rules. I was sitting with another chaperone just chatting, and suddenly two boys peak out of their rooms (across the hall from each other, oblivious to our presence), and one says, "How're the babies?" Huh? THEN they notice us, and one just takes off at a rapid walk down the hall. Officially suspicious. I start hearing something...cheap cheap. Cheap cheap. Hmm...walk to the hotel room, open the door sitting in the hotel bathroom's sink are...

TWO BABY CHICKS!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Three boys had conspired to pull off "Project COB" (Chicks on Bus). FLABBERGASTED! They were feeding these chicks peanut butter for "protein", and setting them in a puddle of water so they could drink. In the case of high school boys, I have concluded that more heads are actually DUMBER than one.

If I weren't a teacher, this situation would be pretty hilarious...but I am, and there is NO precedent for how to deal with two chicks in a hotel room on a choir trip. I ended up calling one of the dads, and we ended up with three options. 1. The chicks stay the night in my room (where they cheap all night and keep me awake). 2. The parents come back up to the hotel and pick up the contraband (which they were NOT excited about). 3. The student takes the chicks outside and kills them. As soon as that option was suggested I just lost it. I felt so upset that a thoughtless decision could potentially end up in taking an innocent life! I never would have let it come to that, but just the suggestion pushed me over the edge (for those of you that don't know, this time in the school year is EXTREMELY exhausting, so I have very little emotional reserve).

This last week two show choir students got picked up for drinking, and another student admitted to using marijuana...and the combination of ALL these thoughtless decisions was just WEIGHING on my heart! SO, we had a big heart to heart on the bus, and I strongly (and somewhat tearfully) encouraged them to really think about who and what their decisions would effect. I got heartfelt apologies from all involved, and hopefully the chick incident will result in actual "thinking" to occur next time a stupid decision is being contemplated!

Oh yeah...the parents ended up coming to get the chicks. I bet they never saw that one coming.