michellezepeda's Blog

This week Northwest Ohio made national news.  It all happened after Lake Local’s High School choir took a trip to Chicago.  While staying at the hotel the chaperones taped the door handles of the hotel rooms the kids were staying in. 

Apparently they did not tell the Lake Local students and when one of them tried to open their hotel room door in the middle of the night it was not easy to open.  That student called his mom allegedly in a panic and then his mom complained to the school district and Fox Toledo News.  The mom was concerned chaperones taped the door completely shut not allowing her son to get out of his room.

Today Lake Local Superintendent, Jim Witt, called Fox Toledo and wanted to clear the air.  I went to his office where he showed me the roll of tape used to tape the student’s doors and also demonstrated how the doors were taped and how easily the tape could be broken when the door was opened. 

Taping doors is a new practice used by school districts across the country.  It lets chaperones know if any kids tried getting out after curfew because the tape will rip.  This is a safety measure to keep kids secure in their rooms while the adults are sleeping. 

Superintendent Witt told me the tour company that the choir trip was booked through actually suggested for the chaperones to tape the doors.

The school district wants to put this all behind them and believes after a meeting the parents have come to the conclusion that their children were not in danger. 

As a parent I would immediately jump to my daughter’s defense if she was panicking and said she was in trouble.  But sometimes as parents and members of society I think we have to take a step back and look at all the information before pointing fingers.  In our world today it is so easy to blame others without gathering all the facts.  The door taping seems to have been a big misunderstanding and if the two parties would have initially just sat down and discussed what happened all this would have probably been resolved without making local or national news.