saeedahmed.com

The Olympics File

NO OLYMPICS FOR LAFAYETTE TEENS By DAN McCALEB and SAEED AHMED

---

Thomson Newspapers Olympics Bureau

ATLANTA -- The Olympics came to an unexpected end Friday for almost 170 students from the Lafayette area who made plans to leave when promised jobs and housing failed to materialize.

The 168 students were part of a larger group -- reportedly numbering 3,000 -- whose hopes of seeing the Olympic Games up close were dashed when Summer Games Employment Services (SGES), a private company, failed to provide accommodations and work.

Several students and chaperones said at one point students went without food for 20 hours.

Marc Conque, religion teacher at Teurlings High School in Lafayette and the lead chaperone for the Lafayette contingent, said Georgia officials and the Red Cross were working on getting the group home.

"I think this is a case of gross negligence," Conque said. "They brought us here, promised us all housing and jobs and they reneged."

Repeated attempts to reach the SGES' Atlanta office were unsuccessful.

A spokesperson for the Atlanta chapter of the American Red Cross said Friday night that Georgia Gov. Zell Miller's office was arranging to have the students bused to a state-owned convention center adjacent to Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. From there, plans call for the students to be bused home, Conque said.

Red Cross spokesperson Bill Maddox said the relief agency was taking care of stranded students from Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and Florida in Henry County, south of Atlanta.

The Lafayette students said they arrived in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon and were sent to schools in Atlanta. Male students sent to a middle school say as many as 90 students were crowded into a classroom.

Girls sent to South Atlanta High School said they had no hot water or air-conditioning. Students said they were not provided breakfast Wednesday morning and did not eat until noon that day.

On Wednesday night, the Atlanta Fire Marshal's office, warning of a potential fire hazard, ordered the students to leave the school, the students said. The students spent the night at the Welcome South Visitors' Center in downtown Atlanta before being shipped to the Days Inn in Jonesboro.

"It's just so disappointing," Conque said of the experience. "Here it is as the Opening Ceremony are taking place and we're packing up tp leave."

An estimated 50 boys were provided jobs at an Atlanta restaurant and bar but were never paid, students said. The remaining students never got jobs.

Jim Knight, an attorney in Forsyth, 70 miles south of Atlanta, said an estimated 700 students are stranded there. The group's chaperones were scheduled to meet with company officials Friday afternoon, but company officials did not show up, Knight said.