A great place for a field trip

[Dymphna]

WTOP.com - Teenager to be charged as adult in National Zoo stabbing

My daughter's class is going there next week.

[bresamil]

Hmmm....real confidence builder there....sounds really secure...

[hvp05]

What am I missing?

I don't see how this has much to do with the Zoo at all.

[getbent]

I've been there a couple times for field trips. Never once did I feel unsafe.

[NorthBeachPerso]

Seems to be an Easter tradition there.

[Dymphna]

Originally Posted by hvp05

What am I missing?

I don't see how this has much to do with the Zoo at all.

Didn't you read the article? Even the title?

[hvp05]

Originally Posted by Dymphna

Didn't you read the article? Even the title?

Of course.


What do you expect the Zoo to do, initiate some sort of police state-inspired lockdown? Maybe they could try reading peoples' minds before entering, towards finding out everyone's true intentions.

This assault could have happened anywhere; it's not as if the Zoo was negligent in some way. They broke up the first altercation, then the second one happened off Zoo grounds.

Surely you were not under the impression that the Zoo was a perfect, error-free environment prior to this incident.

[Dymphna]

Originally Posted by hvp05

Of course.


What do you expect the Zoo to do, initiate some sort of police state-inspired lockdown? Maybe they could try reading peoples' minds before entering, towards finding out everyone's true intentions.

This assault could have happened anywhere; it's not as if the Zoo was negligent in some way. They broke up the first altercation, then the second one happened off Zoo grounds.

Surely you were not under the impression that the Zoo was a perfect, error-free environment prior to this incident.

Didn't say the zoo was negligent...however it ISN'T the best of neighborhoods...

A few weeks ago, I heard that my kid was going to have a zoo field trip. I thought, ok, that's fine, my older kid went last year or the year before... Then I heard from another parent that the kids weren't ALLOWED to go unless a parent went... never heard of such a thing and my other kid went without me...but then, a close friend of ours DID chaperon that trip, and supervised my son, despite the fact that her own son was in a different class. So I asked this friend of mine, who chaperones EVERY trip her kids go on and she said that for security reasons, the school would like to have at least one chaperon for every 2 kids....so... I made child care arrangements so I could go on the field trip.

Do I seriously expect trouble in the middle of the day in the middle of the week? No. But it's still not pleasant to learn that there was a violent altercation among the zoo patrons a week and a half before the trip.

[twinoaks207 (Premo)]

And isn't it just a crying shame that our societal behavior has deteriorated to the point that we have to think about, let alone discuss, the safety of schoolchildren on field trips to the National Zoo?!!

While I was typing this, channel 9 announced that the Zoo officials have been reviewing safety procedures and will be turning away people after they reach the 25,000 mark for attendance.

???

Guess they're trying to lessen the odds...

[hvp05]

Originally Posted by Dymphna

Didn't say the zoo was negligent...however it ISN'T the best of neighborhoods...

I used to enjoy going up to that area and roaming around a bit - of course, that was quite a few years ago.


I'm surprised no one has yet made the joke that the 'zoo' outside the cages is wilder than the one inside.