Farmington High Marching Band Denied Trip to Pearl Harbor Commemoration 

FARMINGTON, Utah — The parents of just over 100 Farmington High School marching band students were left disappointed after the Davis School Board voted to deny approval for a trip to Pearl Harbor.

“I really thought they would be able to see what a unique opportunity this is,” said Tacy Gibbons. “As parents, I think we think about the educational opportunity and I love history.”

The marching band was recently invited to perform at a ceremony for the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Bands from each of the eight states that had battleships in the attack were asked to take part.

Gibbons’s daughter, Skye Stine, was excited about the opportunity.

“Happy, yes,” said Stine, a 9th-grade flute player. “I’ve never been to Hawaii before, so that would be really cool, especially because I could then go play there, and I’d have all my band friends with me and stuff. It was pretty exciting news.”

The Davis School board, however, voted five to two Wednesday, to not go forward with the trip, saying it would have gone against multiple policies.

“The school board looked at their policy and said, ‘according to our policy, we cannot allow this to occur,'” district spokesman Chris Williams explained. “Their decision was based solely on their own board of education policy.”

Williams said policies don’t allow travel outside the continental U.S., or for trips that last more than three consecutive school days.

The trip to Hawaii would have lasted five days.

Then, there’s the third part: a policy limiting school fees, including costs for school trips.

The state legislature took a hard look at rising costs to parents in 2018. Ultimately, districts were required to implement hard limits in 2019. In the Davis School District, trips were limited to a maximum of $1,000.

The trip to Hawaii was estimated at $2,900.

“Some marching band from Utah will be there,” Gibbons said. “It’s frustrating that we’re the ones they picked first and the school board won’t let us go.”