News accounts about a trip that students from Half Hollow Hills High School arranged for themselves and that included drinking, drug use and other illegal behavior as it got underway is not the first of such trips that have made the news. Unfortunately, this is a story that seems to surface every few years, and every time it does, the same questions arise. It’s time we take some steps to ensure that our kids don’t continue to put one over on us as parents and educators, and to hold the travel agents and tour companies responsible for ensuring the safety of the children whose dollars they are so willingly taking.

How, for example, does any reputable tour company, whose business it is to arrange for these trips, allow a bus load of young people to take off without ensuring they are adequately chaperoned? And, how does a bus operator allow his young passengers to engage in drinking and drug use for hours while he is at the wheel of the vehicle?

There are no reasonable answers to these questions, and apparently there are also no legal penalties in place to ensure children’s safety under such circumstances. In our view, such conduct is illegally dealing with minors, which is already an offense. It’s apparent, however, that more is needed.

If they’re not already in place, the state should slap some legal controls on these tour operators, to make them aware that any future lapses in judgment when dealing with our children are going to cost them both in terms of financial penalties and or jail time if, God forbid, a youngster is hurt due to their negligence.

Young people often make poor decisions and place themselves in vulnerable situations; that’s simply fact of life. As adults, however we have a responsibility to make sure their mistakes don’t cost them their reputations or their lives. To do less is simply irresponsible.