Niles West regular physics classes took to the ice at the Weber Center on Monday, Nov. 28, where several students were injured. Cuts, chipped teeth and many falls occurred. These injuries lead to the question of whether the trip was dangerous, or if students just made poor decisions to result in injury. These injuries weren’t too surprising, considering the trip consisted of inexperienced and mostly immature teenagers. 

Although the field trip was chaperoned by Niles West physics teachers, the students had to sign a form rendering the students liable for any injuries. The form reads, “My signature below constitutes and is evidence of my agreement to accept general liability for the participation of the above-named student in this trip; to hold harmless District 219 and release District 219 and all of its employees and agents from all liability arising from the above-named student’s participation in this trip.”

This means that the school isn’t responsible for any buffoonery that the students are bound to partake in. 

“You have to know your limitations when you go on a trip like that, do you know how to skate? We encourage people to go, you don’t necessarily have to skate,” physics and astronomy teacher Elizabeth Ramseyer said.

Some students are blaming field trip supervisors for injuries students self inflicted, but when students are tackling each other, belly sliding and wrestling on the ice, there’s not much the physics teachers can do. Injuries like this can even happen during a regular day of school due to high school students and their underdeveloped brains.

“I think the field trip was both dangerous and not dangerous. If you weren’t doing what you were supposed to and were fooling around, it could have been deemed dangerous, but if you were careful and knew how to skate it was totally fun and safe,” junior Niki Manojlovic said.  

Other students felt that there was no danger to field trip participants.

“The trip wasn’t dangerous in my opinion. Everybody I know had a lot of fun and it was nice to take a break from school,” junior Chris Kedryna said.

“The trip was not dangerous in the slightest bit. It was a very fun trip and all my friends enjoyed it as well,” junior Arun Krishna said. 

For the students who were inexperienced skaters, and fooled around, the trip could have been dangerous (at their own fault). However, it appears that students who acted responsibly didn’t get injured.