Neshaminy High School’s (NHS) Class of 2027 recently traveled on the annual Junior Class Trip from May 2-4, visiting popular attractions like Kings Dominion, Busch Gardens, and Washington, D.C. While the weekend was filled with exciting rides, sightseeing, and memorable moments with friends, some unexpected events added a more emotional and reflective tone to parts of the trip, making it an experience students are unlikely to forget.

Kings Dominion

The trip’s first destination of the weekend was the amusement park Kings Dominion in Doswell, Virginia. Students were able to venture off and ride anything they wanted to throughout the park. Kings Dominion offers all kinds of rides, from crazy coasters to high flying drops. Some of these rides include Delirium, Dominator, Drop Tower, Eiffel Tower, Grizzly, Pantherian, Rapterra, Reptillian, and Tumbili. The juniors had a great time exploring the park and experiencing the thrill of the rides. 

Sadly, there were some ride complications and students ended up stuck on rides. One of these was the Windseeker, which is a ride that has the traditional swings that are featured at most amusement parks, but with a dizzying height of 300 feet high. 

Student Sydney Shearer was one of the few who experienced these complications and got stuck at the very top of the ride. She recalls her situation and describes, “It was really scary because I actually didn’t know what was going to happen… I was like ‘wow am I going to get down from here?’” 

Kings Dominion’s staff was able to get all of the students safely down to the ground and nobody was hurt. 

After their well-spent day, students got back on the buses to travel to their hotel for the weekend, Embassy Suites. 

Hotel Problems

There were some complications and some rooms weren’t up to the standards of the school. The first night of the trip, the hotel was completely booked, so they were unable to switch people’s rooms. Even though these challenges popped up, the hotel and trip advisors were able to adapt and fix any problems they had. 

David Fink, the class advisor for the juniors, worked with the hotel every night to adapt to these challenges and make sure every student received the experience they wanted. 

“Overall, I think that the hotel did a decent job of accommodating such a large group. There were over 100 rooms we had booked… Best case of a challenging situation, but we made it work,” Fink stated. 

Busch Gardens 

On the Sunday of the trip, students went to Busch Gardens for another fun day at an amusement park. Students got to travel through countries like Germany, Ireland, England, Scotland, France and Italy that were displayed at the park. 

Kendra Duda, another junior on the trip, explained how this was one of her favorite parts of the trip. 

“Busch gardens is a very beautiful place to walk around. I wasn’t miserable walking around the place, from ride to ride. I had enjoyment the whole time,” Duda explained. 

This park offered a number of rides for the students to go on and experience the thrill. Some of these rides included Verbolten, Alpengeist, Apollo’s Chariot, The Big Bad Wolf, DarKoaster, Griffon and many more. Students experienced a lot less ride breakdowns at Busch Gardens, which allowed for everyone on the trip to have a fun day. 

Lunch Cruise and Washington D.C. 

On Monday, NHS students woke up early to travel to Washington, D.C. for a lunch cruise together. Students experienced a fun two hour cruise which included food and drinks. 

After this, students went to the museums and monuments in D.C. where they could walk around and see all that it has to offer. Students had free reign to learn about and look at all the historic places in the city. 

However, the trip sadly took a quick turn when shots were fired near the Washington Monument. A man named Michael Marx allegedly fired shots at the Secret Service agents and is now facing three charges. 

According to a CNN report of the incident, the man ran when the Secret Service approached him and then turned to fire at them. A juvenile nearby was injured, but luckily, it was not an NHS student. The Secret Service officers then fired at the suspect, and when they went to aid him, the man reportedly spat at them. 

Things escalated quickly, and the trip soon turned into a crisis. Students nearby were quickly led to safety after the traumatic event. 

All of the NHS juniors were soon sent text messages from Fink of a location for all them to report to in order to account for all students and get them to safety. 

As concern spread, Fink recalled his first thoughts during it all.

 “Student safety is always a priority and ensuring that we as a group can all get to safety and kinda account for everyone in that moment,” Fink recalled.  

There was much confusion as multiple locations were announced, but eventually all students met with the chaperones and advisors in front of the Washington Monument. 

“We were speaking with Ms. Cimohowski, and the goal was to find a common area that was accessible to students that allowed us to get picked up by the buses,” described Fink. The first location was what was the fastest common space for all students to meet, while the second one was what was most accessible for the buses due to D.C. transit patterns.

“Thankfully, they were only like a block or a half a block away. We were still able to reunify very quickly,” Fink added. 

Possible New Changes

The events that took place on this trip are raising questions about what is next for the junior class trip. 

When asking Fink about these possible changes, he explained, “I think we’re going to have to wait for recommendations from the school district and administration. I think that there is a chance that the school could be open to having a lot of similar activities and possibly making changes if necessary. It really is an unknown.” 

One of the popular rumors is that the trip will return to going to the Washington D.C. Zoo, and it really is up in the air for now. Fink reported about how they will adapt and he explained, “As things pop up, we are flexible and accommodating and we make changes needed based on situations from previous years.” 

Adapting to challenges

The teachers and staff on this trip faced many challenges, but they truly adapted and made the best of a hard situation. They dedicated themselves to making sure every student got home safely and did just that. 

The Neshaminy Class of 2027 is very grateful for all of the staff’s efforts and everything they did to ensure their safety. The students had a great time on this trip despite any complications. 

“I thought from a planning perspective, I think everything went according to plan. There are obviously some things that we can’t always control like weather, or rides if they’re opened or closed and people getting stuck on them. But I think that’s just the reality of going to an amusement park, things do happen,” Fink stated.