Drinking on Teens’ Trip Threatens City Funds

An award-winning student exchange program between Hermosa Beach and its Mexican sister city is in danger of losing its city funding amid complaints of lax supervision that led to drinking and smoking among the 13- and 14-year-old students on this year’s trip to Mexico.

At least one child, a 14-year-old boy, got so drunk on the February trip to Loreto that he passed out on the beach after sneaking away from a chaperoned dance, his mother said. Another student, a seventh-grader, said the teen-aged children of her Mexican host family treated her and two friends to cigarettes and a case of Corona beer, which they drank while driving around Loreto on their last night in town.

“I’m very concerned, both from the standpoint of a councilwoman and from the standpoint of parent,” said City Councilwoman Kathleen Midstokke, whose daughter was among the 21 exchange students.

“I’d like this matter investigated, and if the problem cannot be remedied--and a guarantee cannot be made to parents that their children will not be offered alcohol and cigarettes--I cannot be supportive of continuing city funding for this program.”

The head chaperon of the annual trip, Amparito Doolittle, defended the program, saying she thinks the complaints are being blown out of proportion by some people for political gain.

She said supervision of the students has always been adequate. Students are clearly told that drinking and smoking are prohibited, she said, adding that this year, for the first time, a 10 p.m. curfew was also imposed.

Drinking has occurred on past trips and “nobody ever made it a big issue,” said Doolittle, who was among four chaperons overseeing the group.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” said Doolittle, whose sentiments were shared by several parents.

At issue, Doolittle said, is a program that the Hermosa Beach Sister Cities Committee has sponsored since 1974.

Each spring, a group of students from Hermosa Beach spend a week with various host families in Loreto; in the summer, Loreto sends a delegation of students to live with families in Hermosa Beach.

Because Hermosa Beach does not have a high school, the city sends seventh- and eighth-graders from Hermosa Beach City School District to Loreto. Although the school district is not a sponsor of the exchange, the students are screened by the school superintendent and are given homework to do during their week away, said George Barks, president of the Hermosa Beach Sister Cities Committee.

Although the $5,000 program is funded largely through donations, the city subsidized the trip with a $1,000 grant this year, Barks said.

“We probably could make it without the city’s support, but the money sure helps,” he added.

Barks said Hermosa Beach is the only city in the state to have an exchange program for students so young, a feature that last year won Hermosa Beach an award from the U.S.-Mexico Sister Cities Assn.

“I haven’t had one (Hermosa) parent call me to complain about anything,” he said. “In fact, I’ve had several parents thank me for having a program in Hermosa that their sons and daughters get a lot out of, in terms of educational and cultural exchange.”

Officials said the drinking incidents did not come to light until about a week and a half ago, when a parent, who mistakenly believed that the trip was school-sponsored, telephoned the school superintendent to complain and decided to discuss it with the school board.

“She said she understood there was a lack of supervision and drinking on the trip, so I talked to a few of the kids,” Supt. Shalee Cunningham said. “What I found out was that a few of the kids were drinking. They didn’t say what, and I didn’t ask. It was alcohol, and that was enough for me.”

According to students, parents and Doolittle, there were at least two incidents involving liquor and cigarettes on the trip, which lasted from Feb. 10 to 18.

The first, Doolittle said, occurred during a Thursday night dance, attended by all the children and their Loreto families and the four chaperons. At one point during the evening, she said, one of the students fell ill and she and another chaperon took him home.

“I was gone about an hour, but when I got back, I could tell something was wrong because about six kids were missing,” Doolittle said. “The chaperons said they had gone out to get some soda pop because there was nothing to eat or drink at the dance.”

In fact, according to students and parents, the six were at the beach, sharing a bottle of vodka a 14-year-old boy had somehow procured. Eventually, a Mexican host parent found the group and herded them back to the dance, except for the boy who had obtained the vodka, who was so drunk he had to be taken home.

The boy’s mother learned about the incident from her son, and although she has grounded the boy as punishment she did not consider what happened serious enough to warrant a discontinuation of the program.

“My son told me he had about an eight-inch iced-tea glass with enough stuff in it to make him sick and pass out,” the boy’s mother said. “He said he went to sleep on the rocks by the beach. . . . But as I look at it, if he took a drink, got sick, threw up and woke up and feeling terrible, maybe he’ll decide never to drink again.”

A second incident occurred the next evening, when the children of a host family took three of the American students on a farewell drive around Loreto.

“We were driving around and they had a little six-pack of Corona, and they kept saying: ‘Want a beer? Want a beer?’ ” recalled one of the students, a 13-year-old.

“So we took it, and later when we stopped at a store, they said, ‘Want more beer?’ And my friend goes, ‘Yes!’ So they went in, and when they came out, they had a big box that had, like, 20 beers, and we just said, ‘Oh, my God!’ ”

The student said her Mexican hosts didn’t know about the beer or cigarettes she and her friends were offered. She said that she didn’t get drunk but that she did have two beers, even though she had been told before the trip that drinking was not allowed.

“I guess it was, like, peer pressure,” she said. “Everyone else was doing it.”

Not all the parents were angry about the incident.

“I’m concerned about it, but I’m not at the upset point,” said Darrell Greenwald, who charged that Midstokke and others may be overreacting.

“I’ve heard some want to end the program, but I think they’re going overboard. It’s been such a good program and has gone on for so many years. I’d hate to see it hurt because of an incident like this being blown out of proportion.”

“I’m not going to run out and call every parent whose kid smoked a cigarette down there, and I just can’t be with them 24 hours a day,” she said.

Nonetheless Midstokke said she plans to bring the matter before the City Council. And Cunningham said she plans to brief the school board on the incident.