I am receiving more information on this situation hourly, some of it from those of you kind enough to offer firsthand observations via this Message Board. Thanks for that. There are two reasons I posted this message here and elsewhere (the Aruba travel Web site). First, I would hope that parents would take note that the chaperone they hired to protect their kids was AWOL at critical times and that there was illegal abuse of alcohol under this person's supervision, which was all too apparent and is documented in photos after they left the premises. Our objective is to make parents more aware of the dangers of sending their children off without parental supervision. Second, I think that all homeowners should ask more questions of their management companies and make sure rules are in place to prevent a tragedy. We have done this over the past weekend and today with ours and they are already taking measures in response. The reason I have not and will not mention the management company by name is that they were misled, too and it could happen to others with other companies. Other than this occurrence, we believe this company does as good a job as we would get with other area management companies in the area.
I will point out that homeowners need to read the fine print in their rental agreements and check it for changes from one year to the next. For example, it was pointed out to us that they equate the term "guardian" to that of "chaperone" (not a legal equivalent) and that the 1:4 ratio of parents to underage persons is for the Spring Break period only, although this is not clearly stipulated in the contract language. We are in the process of clarifying this in no uncertain terms right now. We will also be making periodic calls directly to our home at critical times, asking to speak with a parent.
Finally, we will also have friends, family members who live there, and neighbors keeping an eye out at the house, in addition to the management company. If we have any reason to think that minors are being served alcohol in our home, we will call the County Sheriff and have arrests made. I would venture that parents unwilling to make the trip to the beach with the kids to prevent this from happening will make a trip down to Juvenile Hall in record time. That sounds harsh, but we are not willing to assume liability for unsupervised underage kids when their parents are not assuming responsibility. And never mind the so-called chaperone. One posted reply from the other site actually asked didn't I know that the adult chaperone's job is to buy the beer and take it to the house. Egads.
If a hardline attitude can save one life or future for one of these kids, it will have been time and angst well spent. So I will now climb down from the proverbial soapbox and hope that those who might be effected by situations like this will take our message in the way it is intended. We want everyone to love Grayton as we do and to have a great time down there. In fact, we like the idea of our renters thinking of our house as their house at Grayton Beach. But above all, we want people to be as safe as possible.
until 3:00. We love this spot. Found someone I worked with in Louisville (KFC R&D) who now works in Seaside. Glad there wasn't so much damage this time.
