2004/2005/2006 Championships: Atlanta

[DKolberg]

IMHO, parents and school boards will be a lot more nervous about sending their kids to Atlanta than to Disney. At Disney the spare time kids had is confined to the park which is essentially an Island unto itself. Many schools and parents feel comfortable with sending their kids to Disney (our school as canceled all other trips except the ones to Disney). The Atlanta site has no such boundaries and it will be very difficult to keep kids out of downtown areas at night were they should not be. Most people in this forum spend most of their time with the robot and therefore this is not a big problem, but for large teams that have many students that do not work on the robot and will be looking for something else to do will get into trouble. FIRST needs to think about the safety of the students as the schools have to think about the liability issues associated with such a trip. The liability for trips to Disney is very low compared to other places, downtown areas have the highest perceived liability, especially a site that has had fatalities during events in the past. You may think it is no big deal to go to Atlanta but your schools may have other ideas.