Class Trip

England is more than 2,600 miles from Kuwait, but it is still too close for comfort for the Haverford school board. The routine board approval of an overseas field trip became an item for serious deliberation last week amid the threat of a military conflict in the Persian Gulf region. The board was divided over the trip and, after brief discussion, expressed "apprehension" over its approval. They pushed back their final ruling to next month's board conference meeting. John Meehan, principal of Haverford Senior High School, asked the board last Tuesday at their monthly conference meeting to approve an advanced placement history class trip to England over the school's spring vacation.

Fifth-grade teacher Donna Lucido called U.S. Space Camp officials back in September even though she figured they would never accept her class. She kept calling because, well, her class really wanted to go. "They said, 'Here's an 800 number,' " she said. "And wouldn't it set a bad example if I didn't try?" Two months and 18 calls later, she had worked out a deal. Her class at Edgewood Elementary School in Lower Makefield will go to Space Camp in Titusville, Fla., in May. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Keristen Gaber, 10, a class member.

"Olney High - Live on forever. " As the last words of our school song echoed in the room, we began joyfully saying our goodbyes. Another high school reunion had passed; we had celebrated our 50th anniversary. Young and hopeful, we graduated from Olney in 1953, the year Dwight Eisenhower became president, Dumont was still a TV channel, and Philadelphia boasted both the Phillies and the Athletics baseball teams. We were 423 graduates that January 22. Five decades later, 20 had been lost to places unknown and 43 had died; we mourn them.

Brittany McGhee and Azsherae Gary are mad about being deprived of their eighth-grade graduation ceremony. "We were going to look nice," Brittany, 14, said. "We were going to wear cap and gowns and all. " Instead, FitzSimons Middle School in North Philadelphia will be refunding the cost of the caps and gowns and not allowing any of the graduating students, who number about 140, to walk down the aisle on Thursday. School district officials said it was for good reason. According to a letter sent by the school to students' parents, an "overwhelming number" of students - at least 60, according to school officials - misbehaved on a June 6-8 class trip to Baltimore and Washington.

It was a warm night, about a quarter before 11 on the eve of the annual sophomore class trip to Dorney Park in Allentown, Pa., when the two teenagers headed to the Wawa down the street. Mark Jagielski, 16, needed provisions. A fresh hoagie and a bottle of Snapple in hand, he and Timmy Campbell shuffled along the dark shoulder on Tuckahoe Road that led home. Mark walked closer to the road, a few strides from the cars that whizzed by, their headlights piercing the night. Shattering glass interrupted Timmy's voice.

A longtime assistant principal at Cherry Hill High School East was found dead yesterday morning in his office, where he had gone after returning late the previous night from chaperoning a senior class trip to Walt Disney World. Leonard Terranova, 65, died of natural causes, officials said. News of his death stunned the school of 2,200 students, where Terranova worked for more than 30 years. People who knew Terranova ? a tall, broad-shouldered man who wore a perpetual smile ? described him as warm and funny, with a knack for remembering names and making people feel good about themselves.

When the Council Rock girls' basketball team hosts its Class AAAA District 1 game tonight against Haverford High, all the Indians will be there. But for the last few weeks, the prospect of playing the district opener shorthanded was very real. The five Council Rock seniors on the team - Lori Mastropietro, Jen Poll, Meg Colton, Dominique Dunphy and Carly Seiler - will leave tomorrow morning on a class trip to sunny Florida. All district games were scheduled to be played tomorrow and Saturday, and the players fully expected to miss the game.

CHEMISTRY - perhaps the most-feared course in the college curriculum - has taken on an approachably sudsy look this semester at West Chester University. "The Chemistry of Beer" is a new elective science class for students who don't wear pocket protectors. "It seems most students are interested in two things," said associate professor Roger Barth, who created the course to attract nonscience majors to his classroom, "so I thought we'd go with the second one. " The course examines the complexities of chemistry, from acids and bases to hydrophilic molecules, through a beaker full of brew.

The Downingtown School District should be proud of about 300 seniors who staged a walkout last week in protest of a canceled class trip to the nation's capital, Superintendent Ronald W. Gray told the school board. Gray's comments came at the board's meeting Wednesday, a day after the student protest. The students met with Gray and senior high principal Levi Wingard for about an hour Tuesday morning after the walkout to discuss the trip, which, along with a senior brunch, had been canceled.

The rules to ride the Giant Wheel at Morey's Piers in Wildwood will be strengthened when it resumes spinning Saturday, but the changes aren't enough for the family of the 11-year-old girl who died in a fall from the Ferris wheel two weeks ago. Lawyers for the family of Abiah Jones said that the ride should not be used until it can be retrofitted with lap restraints in each car. "Otherwise, what happened to Abiah Jones could happen again," said...

The rules to ride the Giant Wheel at Morey's Piers in Wildwood will be strengthened when it resumes spinning Saturday, but the changes aren't enough for the family of the 11-year-old girl who died in a fall from the Ferris wheel two weeks ago. Lawyers for the family of Abiah Jones said that the ride should not be used until it can be retrofitted with lap restraints in each car. "Otherwise, what happened to Abiah Jones could happen again," said...

She was both "old and young," her mother said, a studious little girl who liked to have fun but dreamed of being a lawyer or doctor someday. But Abiah Jones, 11, wasn't old enough to be alone on the 156-foot Ferris wheel in Wildwood on June 3, her parents said, and she shouldn't have died so young, while on a class trip with friends. "This is the biggest loss and the worst thing I have ever been through in my life," Twanda Jones, Abiah's mother, said yesterday afternoon at a Center City law firm.

1NOTE THREATENED TRIP TO SPIRIT OF PHILADELPHIA A class trip to Philadelphia by a group of Bucks County sixth-graders had to be revamped after someone sent a letter warning of a plot by two parents to sicken students on a lunch cruise and then sue for damages. The note warned that the parents were planning to sicken their own children and others from the Council Rock School District. The annual trip is still on, without the cruise on the Spirit of Philadelphia. Students from the Goodnoe Elementary School will still tour the city's historic district.

Most players dream of a fantastic finish to their senior season. Kevin Comer is still waiting for an official start. The baseball season is nearly two weeks old, and South Jersey's top prospect has yet to throw a pitch. The Seneca senior class trip, an ankle injury, and inclement weather have conspired to keep Comer off the mound. "I'm really excited to finally get in a game that means something," Comer said Tuesday, after coming within seconds of his first pitch of the season.

As a gallery owner in Old City for almost 20 years, I can tell you exactly what it is like to have the Duck boats move into your neighborhood ("Ill-informed editorial on planned Duck tours," Friday). The Old City section of Philadelphia is best known for its many historic sites, unique architecture, upscale shops, art galleries, and fine restaurants. It has a character, charm, and grace found nowhere else - until the Ducks start rolling. As soon as the winter weather is gone, the giant white amphibious landing craft start rumbling down the quaint streets of Old City heading for the Delaware River, just like the invasion force they were built to be. One after another, seven days a week, they stream through the neighborhood with loudspeakers blaring the most obnoxious music imaginable - the "Chicken Dance" is a tour favorite.

CHEMISTRY - perhaps the most-feared course in the college curriculum - has taken on an approachably sudsy look this semester at West Chester University. "The Chemistry of Beer" is a new elective science class for students who don't wear pocket protectors. "It seems most students are interested in two things," said associate professor Roger Barth, who created the course to attract nonscience majors to his classroom, "so I thought we'd go with the second one. " The course examines the complexities of chemistry, from acids and bases to hydrophilic molecules, through a beaker full of brew.

A longtime assistant principal at Cherry Hill High School East was found dead yesterday morning in his office, where he had gone after returning late the previous night from chaperoning a senior class trip to Walt Disney World. Leonard Terranova, 65, died of natural causes, officials said. News of his death stunned the school of 2,200 students, where Terranova worked for more than 30 years. People who knew Terranova ? a tall, broad-shouldered man who wore a perpetual smile ? described him as warm and funny, with a knack for remembering names and making people feel good about themselves.

With memorial ribbons pinned to their shimmering green and gold gowns, 400 graduating seniors at Clearview Regional High School marched onto the football field yesterday, bringing to a close a tumultuous school year marred by four deaths. "Theresa and Dan and their friends Michael and John," principal Kevin Kitchenman intoned, his voice quavering into a loudspeaker as he named the students whose deaths rocked the school in Mullica Hill. Clearview's 1,530 students were forced to grow up quickly when the first tragedy struck only a few weeks after school started.

Recollections of her years at St. Jude Regional School in Blackwood rush through Marie Marsh's mind like a montage. There was the class trip to Trenton, the separate playgrounds for boys and girls, selling refreshments at bingo, and the many practical jokes. Marsh, a member of the first graduating class of St. Jude in 1968, attended neighboring St. Agnes School and transferred to St. Jude, on the Black Horse Pike, when she was in sixth grade. "It was newer. We had more space and the playground was larger," she said.

Brittany McGhee and Azsherae Gary are mad about being deprived of their eighth-grade graduation ceremony. "We were going to look nice," Brittany, 14, said. "We were going to wear cap and gowns and all. " Instead, FitzSimons Middle School in North Philadelphia will be refunding the cost of the caps and gowns and not allowing any of the graduating students, who number about 140, to walk down the aisle on Thursday. School district officials said it was for good reason. According to a letter sent by the school to students' parents, an "overwhelming number" of students - at least 60, according to school officials - misbehaved on a June 6-8 class trip to Baltimore and Washington.