Students headed to Colombia

PLYMOUTH – Some elated Plymouth High School students placed calls to students from Bogotá, Colombia in South America, after the School Board gave them the green light Tuesday to travel to that country for eight days in June.

But the board’s unanimous approval was granted with a stipulation. That is, the board has the right to enforce the trip-cancellation clause in the PHS Student Travel Parental Authorization and Release document, if anything should happen in Colombia to concern board members, prior to the trip.

PHS Spanish teachers Jane Groblewski and Laura Koebel had requested that the board grant permission for them to take 11 students from their classes on a trip to Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. This is an exchange trip for PHS students to stay with the families of students who visited PHS in January.

The teachers and the students involved made a presentation to the board at its March 8 Committee of the Whole meeting, explaining the purpose of the trip, reviewing the general itinerary and addressing the safety concerns, regarding travel to Colombia.

The safety issue stems from a travel warning to Colombia that the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Consular Affairs issued this year. It states that while security in Colombia has improved significantly in recent years, violence by narco-terrorist groups continues to affect some rural areas as well as large cities.

“The potential for violence by terrorists and other criminal elements affects all parts of the country,” it notes. “In recent months, there has been a marked increase in violent crime in Colombia.

“Murder rates have risen significantly in some major cities, particularly Medelin and Cali, and kidnapping remains a serious threat.”

The travel warning adds that small towns and rural areas of Colombia can still be extremely dangerous.

However, the travel warning stressed that the violence in Colombia has diminished significantly from its peak at the beginning of this decade. But nonetheless, terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC] and other criminal organizations continue to kidnap and hold civilians for ransom.

Due to the travel warning, board members had concerns about granting permission for the trip. Then, students who are making the trip read a letter to board members March 8, expressing their desire to be ambassadors for the Plymouth School District in visiting Bogotá. The letter also noted how close the students have become to the Colombian students who visited PHS and stayed with the PHS students’ families in January.

Students from Bogotá have been coming to PHS for several years. Thus, Groblewski and Koebel wanted to take their students to Colombia.

Due to the board’s concerns during the March 8 Committee of the Whole meeting, board members requested that the students attend the March 16 School Board meeting and to bring some of their parents along to address the safety issues in Colombia. They did so.

In addition, board members asked the administrators to have Paul Hemmer the district’s legal counsel, review the parental release form. That directive was followed.

Superintendent Clark Reinke noted Tuesday that a sentence was added to the form. It states, “We have also been specifically advised that the U.S. Department of State currently has a travel warning for U.S. citizens traveling to Colombia, which can be reviewed at: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_ 941.html and we understand the risks associated with travel to this country.”

Groblewski then addressed the board. “Thank you for considering our request,” she said. “The students have done a wonderful job of organizing themselves.”

She noted that she and her daughter Bethe, 25, and Koebel and her niece traveled to Bogotá last summer. “We traced the steps that we would be taking with students this summer,” she noted.

“We would spend most of our time in Bogotá, while the danger that exists is in the remote areas of the mountains,” Groblewski said. “We would not be taking the students there.

“Laura [Koebel] and I would be accessible at all times to the students and would have structured sightseeing with them.”

She added that the director they are working with has run the exchange program for 20 years. “The PGA tournament was held there two weeks ago,” Groblewski said.

“Things are very much opening up. The president has been taking strong measures to make it safe, and there are military police all around,” she said. “The armed guerilla forces that were very strong have been almost eliminated over the last four years. And the U.S. Embassy people are free to travel around.”

Groblewski said she has taken 14 trips abroad with PHS students, and Koebel has taken four trips. “We have never taken them to a place where we don’t think it’s safe,” she stressed.

“Most of the parents these students will be staying with in Bogotá live in gated communities. I trust these students. They are wonderful.

“Our students will stay out of taxis and will be with their host siblings at all times,” Groblewski noted.

“The reason we have Colombians coming back year after year is because of their love of our families, and our families love these students.”

Board President Mark Rhyan asked the teachers whether the students would be staying one to a family.

Koebel said that normally two students would be staying with each host family in Bogota.

“But now because of the close connection they have from staying with a specific family here in Plymouth, they want to be with the family whose student they hosted,” she said. “So it would probably be one student to a family.

Groblewski explained that some of the PHS parents have been using Skype on the Internet to be in touch with the parents from Bogota. “There is the strong connection,” she said.

“We feel our students will be close to the students from Bogota forever,” Groblewski said. “That’s the heart of the program.”

Rhyan asked the teachers how the students would be spending their evenings. “We will be getting together as a group with the host families,” she said.

Rhyan then asked a Joe Hnilicka, a parent who travels frequently, for his take on the discussion.

“I travel a lot, but not to South America,” Hnilicka said. “The sharing of a culture and getting to know a country are rich experiences.”

Board member Tim St. Clair said he was the one who requested that some of the parents attend the meeting so that they are aware of the board’s concerns.

“We wanted to know you have no objections,” St. Clair said.

Board member Gerry Prahl said that he had read the travel warning. “I am concerned that parents are aware of the risks out there,” he said.

“If you feel your child should not go, don’t be afraid to say ‘No,’” Prahl said. “That’s your job. Be a parent.

“I would not vote no against your wishes,” he added. Board member Sally Isely said she feels the trip is a great opportunity for students.

Reinke reminded board members that students making the trip are responsible for funding the entire cost.

Rhyan addressed the parental authorization and release form. “It is very detailed and suggests all liability is assumed by the student and family, in the event something were to occur,” he said. “But this form by itself does not completely absolve us of some responsibility.

“If some catastrophe were to occur, the school district could be included in some type of action.”

“I want parents to be aware of the trip cancellation clause,” St. Clair pointed out. “Be aware that if anything occurs between now and the trip, we will be bringing this issue back up.”

Rhyan agreed. “If the situation changes, the board has the right to cancel the trip.”

He addressed the students. “You are ambassadors to this country,” he said. “You carry a great deal of weight. Do not mess it up. Be careful, and Godspeed.”

Groblewski provided The Review Wednesday with a quote from a National Geographic article of this year, regarding the situation in Colombia.

“Cartels? cocaine? kidnapping? That’s so 1990s. In the wake of massive change, Colombia with its jungles, mountains and coasts is open for business.”

She added that Daniel Skillings, director of the exchange program, informed her that congressional elections were held in Colombia recently. “There were the most peaceful in the past 30 years,” Skillings informed Groblewski.