Never did I think we’d be denied.”

BHS Sailing Coach Victoria Guck

We have to be cautious. We have to be protective of our students and staff…”

Barrington Superintendent Michael Messore

I can’t tell you how devastating it is for these seniors.”

BHS Sailing Coach Victoria Guck

The rule

Following is the School Reentry Task Force rule regarding field trips:

“Daytime Field trips can resume as long as the necessary COVID-19 health and safety policies are met. Stable or extended pods should remain consistent during field trips. This means the same classroom groups or extended pods participate as a stable group in field trip activities as much as possible. When students work directly with the point of contact, such as a work-based learning opportunity provider, the school will verify vaccination status before the event. All individuals will wear masks on the bus and in all indoor locations. Masks may be required on outdoor trips, depending on the specific situation in adherence to our outdoor mask policy above. Overnight field trips will be prohibited until further notice.”

In late September, the Barrington High School sailing team qualified to compete in the Atlantic Coast Championships, an elite regatta featuring some of the best teams in the country.

But the thrill of earning a spot in the event was short-lived.

After requesting permission to travel to the regional competition in Norfolk, Va., the team learned that the Barrington School Department is not allowing any groups or teams to do overnight trips.

Barrington High School sailing team coach Victoria Guck attended the Oct. 7 school committee meeting and voiced the team’s frustrations to school officials. She said the team had to forfeit its spot in the sailing championships, robbing the student-athletes of the memorable experience.

In an interview the day after the school committee meeting, Barrington Superintendent of Schools Michael Messore offered the reason for denying the team’s request: A rule established by the district’s School Reentry Task Force.

“We’re doing field trips,” he said. “But no overnight field trips.”

“There’s so much in the world that is open, but we’re still facing a pandemic.”

Coach Guck said she was willing to take extra precautions during the trip — she offered to rent a van to drive the six team members (they are all fully vaccinated), and rent a home which would allow the sailors to have their own rooms. 

“I put it on the permission form that I’ll do whatever is recommended,” Coach Guck said during an interview. “Never did I think we’d be denied.”

Coach Guck said qualifying for the Atlantic Coast Championships is no small feat. She said this year’s sailing team is quite strong, and earned its invitation to the ACC by finishing as the top team from all of New England at the Casco Bay Regatta at SailMaine on Sept. 11. Team members — three seniors, two juniors, and one sophomore — were very excited about the opportunity to race at regionals in Virginia. 

“I can’t tell you how devastating it is for these seniors,” she said. “It’s been a ‘No culture’ for these kids for so long. They come together and they do something, and then they can’t do this.”

Much of the frustration stems from the fact that this ban on overnight trips established by the School Reentry Task Force appears to ignore or supersede other protocols and guidelines related to Covid-19. The team would be traveling together, but students already do that on a daily basis in much greater numbers; the team members would be eating meals together, but they already do that each day at school. 

In early October, another sports team at Barrington High School competed in an invitational meet in another state. Normally, team members would travel to the event a day early, stay in a hotel, compete, and then travel home again. But this year, facing the overnight trip ban, the team left Barrington early one morning, drive the three to four hours to the event, competed, and then drove home again that night. The total travel time was about an hour or two longer than the sailing team’s one-way travel time to Norfolk, Va.

Coach Guck said she sent numerous emails to school officials offering different travel and lodging options, all in an effort to gain approval for the trip to regionals.

“What if families travelled separately and got hotel rooms, like it is not school sponsored,” she wrote in one email. 

The coach and team members even considered racing under a different name, but New England Sailing Schools Association, the sport’s regional governing body, requires that each qualifying school’s administrators sign off on the entry.

“I have spent countless hours trying to figure out a way to make this work,” Coach Guck wrote in an email to sailing team members’ families. “I have spoken with George Finn (Barrington High School director of athletics and student activities) multiple times trying to figure something out. I spoke with several officers in NESSA trying to see if there is a work around. I wrote to Principal (Joe) Hurley, Superintendent Messore and the School Board. I spoke separately to Mr. Messore to discuss the situation and plead our case. I followed up with all suggestions even going so far as trying to create our own club, but being part of NESSA means having an activities director of the school sign off as the admin. I have followed up with the suggestions you sent to me as well as suggestions from the sailors themselves. I'm exhausted from all of the rejection…”

She later added: “I am gutted and am so deeply sorry we cannot travel to ACCs.”

Coach Guck said she was not angry at Mr. Messore or Mr. Finn (“George is the kindest man ever,” she said), but she continues to struggle with the situation — why should other high school sailings teams from up and down the Eastern Seaboard be allowed to travel to ACCs while Barrington High School is forced to stay home, she asked. 

The difference between Barrington High School and other schools appears to be the Reentry Task Force’s overnight rule. 

Said Mr. Messore: “We have to be cautious. We have to be protective of our students and staff… I’m in agreement with what’s decided. I’m not going to place sole responsibility on the task force.”

Barrington School Committee Chairwoman Gina Bae agreed that Coach Guck and the rest of the BHS sailing team was more than willing to incorporate as many safety precautions as necessary during the trip to the Atlantic Coast Championships. During an interview when asked what guidance measures or state protocols the sailing team would be violating with an overnight trip to regionals, Ms. Bae could not offer any. 

“I feel awful for the sailing team,” Ms. Bae said.

Planning ahead

Coach Guck said delivering the sad news to the sailing team was difficult. 

In an email to Mr. Messore, she asked for a more detailed response — something she could share with the team members and their families that better explained the reasoning.

Mr. Messore offered this: “I understand that it is very difficult for members of our community to be mask free for an entire summer and weekends, attend large gatherings, going out to eat etc.. and then have to face school mandates…”

Mr. Messore wrote that the task force studied research, looked at trends, listened to experts, all in an effort to help the district make informed decisions. 

“We will make the necessary adjustments in the future to our protocols as we continue to monitor the new delta variant,” he wrote. 

Coach Guck said she attended the Oct. 7 school committee meeting, in part, to make school officials aware of the team’s goal to qualify for and participate in a national championship event in the spring.

“I really do think we’re going to qualify for nationals,” Coach Guck said during the interview. “And I want to go to that… I just want to be able to go in the spring.”

Mr. Messore said he could not sign off on an overnight trip this spring at this time. Nor would he rule it out.

“My answer is ‘I hope we can,’” he said. “Let’s see what the landscape is like at that time… let’s be optimistic.”