By Jamie Deng and Catherine Montoya-Quiroz
An ice skating outing meant to bring Galileo students together was canceled by the SFUSD Risk Management Department. The skating trip was meant to take place on February 19th from 2:30-4:00 pm at the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center for 75 students, with the cost of the event subsidized for students so that they would only have to pay $10, while the school covered the other $9.
Organizers for the event were both surprised and disappointed that the event could no longer be held. Organizers started planning in December and it was originally scheduled to take place in mid-January. However, omicron surged, impeding the field trip from planning, and the trip was later rescheduled for mid February.
After all the work by the junior class officers & sponsors, and finally having everything ready to go, it was tough for them to hear that the SFUSD was canceling the event. “I think that the district is a little too overly cautious, though I do understand that there is risk in this trip. However, there is risk in everything. My theory is that someone got hurt during an ice skating trip and later sued SFUSD. Galileo used to have a lot of ice skating field trips,” said Junior class sponsor, Mr. Chinn.
Some students were quite disappointed by the turn of events. Many were thinking how nice it would be to do something fun during this 3 day weekend. Junior Jennifer L. states, “I was actually looking forward to going on the field trip but am quite disappointed that it was canceled. Since my schedule is cleared for the day the trip was supposed to be on, I think I might just stay home and do some work.” Junior Emujin B. also states,“I was kind of irritated because I was looking forward to the trip. I had seen flyers and IG posts announcing the trip. I would tell the planners to check in with the school before getting my hopes up”.
It is still unknown whether a large social event will actually be allowed to take place in the future. Mr Chinn is hopeful that the Boat Dance will take place later in the school year. But he also knows nothing is for sure right now. He states, “Because of Covid, there is a lot of uncertainty regarding social events. However, if the mask mandate is lifted, theoretically we could have a boat dance”.
