So far, the Class of 2024 has had only one field trip, despite currently being in the 12th grade, and the one field trip that the class went on had some mixed opinions surrounding it. It’s easy to tell that the Class of 2024 has not had the typical experience with their school field trips, and many people have questioned why.
I decided to get in the belly of the beast and interview the class president, Malina Dinis, to discover why, how, and what goes on with the people who plan our beloved field trips: the Class of 2024 Officers and Representatives. However, before we get to that, let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.
The Recap
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had just started. There was an attempt in mid-September to implement hybrid learning, where students would come into school two days a week with an augmented schedule and remote days for the other three.
Unfortunately, COVID cases began to rise rapidly, and so hybrid learning was put to a stop. These unfortunate events led to there being no field trip for anyone in 2021, a sad situation for everyone going to Ludlow High.
In March of 2022, the class went to Newburyport for a field trip. This one was quite memorable, as everyone was stranded behind a gas station after one of the buses broke down. They still made the most of it, eating way too many popsicles and ice cream bars and playing some music while waiting for another bus to come.
Newburyport itself was a nice place, and many people enjoyed their time there. The thing about it that many people didn’t enjoy, however, was that there wasn’t much to do there other than shop.
The year after that is when the real controversy started. It was put forth in 2022 that the field trip for the Class of 2024 would be Patriot’s Place. This idea was not received well, with just over 20 sign-ups in total, which was not nearly enough to pay for the transportation to get there.
After that debacle, it was announced that the 2022 field trip would be canceled altogether, with no rescheduling to be happening. This is where the real outcry began, with many believing that the trip should have been rescheduled instead of canceled.
The Interview
Interview Audio Available Here
According to my own research, many people are dissatisfied with the council’s ability to hear student input, as stated in the interview. However, Dinis stated that there is an absence of student presence at the student council meetings, which are welcoming to anybody willing to show up.
“We made it clear from the beginning that if people wanted to attend meetings and wanted to be heard then they could attend them. We figured it was kind of open but I guess knowing that, that’s good to know because now I think we’ll try to get the word out more about the meetings and it’s good to know that that many people actually care and that many people want to be heard.”
As stated, Dinis will try to let it be more well-known when student council meetings take place.
Dinis also stated that she believed the Patriot’s Place field trip was not popular because it was too expensive of a trip. Whether that is true or not is up for debate.
“Personally, I think that they thought it was too expensive. Because last year, buses were so expensive for us to go anywhere, so the price to go on that field trip was expensive. So, I feel like a lot of people were like ‘I could go there for free on my own. Why would I pay that much money to go.’ ”
After the interview was done, I asked Dinis if there were any ideas for the spring field trip. She stated that there was something, but that it was just an idea. She requested not to mention what was said in this article.
As stated in the interview, there will be a student council meeting in the near future. There was no specific date given, so any curious individual may ask a student council member to know when it might be.
