Going Nowhere : Travel Agent’s Failure Ends Student Trip Plans

One day after 185 Emerald Junior High School students and their chaperons found themselves stranded in Washington because the travel agency that organized their field trip ran out of money, four other local schools were informed by the same agency that similar trips they had planned for this month were being cancelled.

A group of 145 eighth-graders from Wangenheim Junior High School were scheduled to leave for a tour of Washington, Philadelphia and New York early Wednesday morning. Students from three other San Diego schools--Bell Junior High School, Lewis Junior High School and the O’Farrell School of Creative and Performing Arts--were slated to take similar trips to the East Coast later this month.

Dr. Eloiza Cisneros, assistant superintendent for school operations for the San Diego Unified School District, said that Anthony Casias, co-owner of East West Travel, called her this morning to tell her that he would have to cancel the four upcoming trips.

“Mr. Casias told me that due to a cash flow problem, he would have to cancel the trips but that he wasn’t able to say anything more,” Cisneros said.

Casias could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Cisneros said that a number of district schools, including Wangenheim and Lewis,

had been using the agency to organize field trips for the last 12 years and had never had any problems before.

“Our past history with them has been very successful,” Cisneros said. “This is very disappointing.”

Melanie Petersen, an attorney for the school district, said that the four schools had paid East West Travel almost $200,000 to cover travel and lodging expenses for the student groups.

Petersen said that Casias told her Wednesday morning that he was planning to file for bankruptcy. The school district had not yet decided whether to take legal action against the travel agency, she said.

“We’re still really assessing where we are,” Petersen said. “A lot will depend on whether (Casias) files for bankruptcy.”

Dr. Walter Romanowski, principal of Lewis, said he had been working with the agency for years and had once served as a chaperon on a trip it organized.

“All the trips I’ve been involved in, they’ve been nothing but helpful,” Romanowski said. “They seemed to have a booming business.”

Romanowski said he got the news that the trip had been cancelled at 7 a.m. Wednesday and went directly to the agency’s office to talk to Casias. Like Cisneros, he was told that the agency was having a cash flow problem.

Romanowski said that employees from the agency had visited the school last week to help students plan for the trip.

“They were offering helpful hints, telling the kids how to pack their suitcases,” Romanowski said. “I can’t believe they didn’t know then (that the trip would be canceled).”

At the four schools, reactions ranged from disappointment to anger.

Joene Bruhn, principal of Bell, said, “It’s really sad. We had a lot of tears and emotion . . . they’re 13 years old and they’ve been wronged.”

Bruhn said that the students had been working since September on raising money for the trip.

“It was all earned by saving aluminum cans, 1 cent at a time,” Bruhn said. “Every time they got $100 together, they divided it among themselves.”

Bruhn said all the money has already been given to the travel agency.

Only 1 Seat Reserved

Bruhn said she found out Wednesday that the airline the students were scheduled to fly on had only one seat reserved under the school’s name.

“So we’ve been taken and now we have to lick our wounds and get these kids to think positively about the world again,” she said. “We have a real morale problem . . . . It’s tough when the victims are young people. We’re trying to find some support so we can do something for these kids who worked so hard.”

Meanwhile, the Cajon Valley School District wired funds to the stranded Emerald Junior High students so that they would be able to complete their tour. American Airlines agreed to underwrite their tickets home.

The students were visiting historic monuments in Philadelphia Wednesday and would be moving on to New York today, Principal Marge Dean said.

Dean said that the students needed $80,000 to complete the trip. The school district will provide $47,000 and the return plane tickets donated by American will cover the rest.

Dean said that East West Travel had been organizing tours for the school since 1976 without incident.

The trip was organized by a parents’ group that will be meeting next week to decide whether to take any action against the travel agency.

Wayne Oetken, the Cajon Valley district’s assistant superintendent for business services, said that since a parents’ group had contracted with the travel agency to organize the trip, it would be up to them to decide whether or not to file a claim against East West Travel. But, he said, the district would support their decision.