How would you feel if you found out that your students decided to commit a crime while on a school field trip?
On September 28, Bear River students went on a class field trip to the Sacramento Art museum organized by Art Teacher Elizabeth Jens. To many students and teachers surprise, four anonymous students stole from Evangelines, a halloween store, in Old Town Sac after visiting the museum.
Art Teacher Elizabeth Jens didn’t want to comment on what had happened but openly told us how she felt.
“I’m lost so much trust in these students,” said Mrs. Jens. “I’m actually very embarrassed and I feel violated. It’s as if they don’t realize it effects me emotionally as well.”
Vice Principal Cathy Peterson went into little detail as to how many stores were involved and what punishments these students had undergone.
“Two stores were involved,” said Ms. Peterson, “They were given the maximum school punishment which is 3-5 days of OCS. I had to prove a point.”
She further elaborated on how this event had made her feel.
“Its embarrassing,” Ms. Peterson said. “It’s a huge slap in the face.”
From multiple Bear River staff perspectives, this affair seemed childish and embarrassing. As for student perspectives, this seemed plain stupid.
Senior Hannah Fulton explained what it was like to be a student witness on the field trip.
“We noticed that when it was time to get on the bus and go home, a couple of people were missing,” explained Fulton. “We were waiting for a long time trying to figure out what was going on. But then, a security officer from one of the stores in downtown Sacramento came up to the bus with the missing students and that’s when we all figured what had happened.”
She continued on to describe how Mrs. Jens was feeling.
“Jens kept telling the students how disappointed she was and how she didn’t want them going on other field trips,” said Fulton.
Senior Devon McGregor expressed how he felt about the incident.
“All I thought was, really?,” said McGregor. “You are doing this on a school field trip? Do this on your own time. Though the trip was very enjoyable, that one hiccup kinda ruined it for a lot of people.”
Senior Camlyn Carpio talked about how this may make our school look sub-standard and how foolish those students are.
“When I heard about it, I felt that it was pretty stupid for them to do something like this, especially on a school field trip,” said Carpio. “I feel like it makes our school look bad.”
Even with a speed bump in the trip, Carpio, as well as many other bruins, enjoyed themselves on the journey to the museum.
“All in all, the art museum was actually pretty fun!,” Carpio said. “We took lots of really cool pictures and saw a whole bunch of really cool stuff.”
