saeedahmed.com

The Olympic Files

thomson network; 07/20/96; rbm; for: lafayette

Youths Give Their Side of Ordeal

By SAEED AHMED

Blake LeBlanc signed up as a concessionaire for the Summer Olympic Games thinking he'd be a part of a once in a lifetime experience.

So far, the experience has been one he'd much rather forget.

"Ever since we got here, it's been a series of (unkept) promise," said Blanc, a 17 year-old Senior at Teurlings Catholic School."We're confused, uncertain and it's been total chaos."

LeBlanc is one of 170 high school students from the Lafayette area who have been stranded in Atlanta for the last four days, without accomodations, employment or transportation.

The students are part of a larger nationwide contingent -- numbering around 3,000 -- who were promised jobs as concession vendors in Atlanta by a Texas-based firm, Summer Games Employmnt Services (SGES). The jobs never materialized, neither did the housing, food, or tickets to events they were promised.

"To us, SGES has come to stand for 'Sorry Guys Everything Sucks," said Blanc. "We've been moved from place to place, we've slept on floors, eaten next-to-nothing and we still have no jobs."

The students arrived in Atlanta Tuesday afternoon and were told they'd be put to work the following day. They spent the night at Atlanta schools, without airconditioning, hot water or meals.

"We were told we'd be sleeping 14 to a room, but when we got there there were 92 people sleeping in a classroom," said Patrick Dupuy, a Senior at Teurlings Catholic. "The place was a sweatbox."

While some students were provided jobs at Atlanta's House of Blues the following morning, the rest remained unemployed. Worse, the students were ordered to vacate the schools by Fire Marshalls, who deemed the crowded premises fire hazards.

Since then, the students have been shuttled from place to place, in search of stable accomodation, while SGES claimed it was looking at alternatives.

"It's gotten to a point where we don't believe anything SGES tells us now," said Jerrod Meche, a 17-year-old Junior at Carencro High. "As soon as we unpack at one place, they tell us to pack our bags and move again."

The students say their ongoing ordeal has been tempered only by the care and concern displayed by their chaperones. The 17 to 20-year-old high schoolers were accompanied by a group of teachers, mostly from Lafayette area schools.

" They were the best people in the world," said 17-year-old Heather Buillion, a Senior at Acadiana High. "They watched over us like parents, fed us ... they took really good care of us.

As of last report, the Gergia governor's office was arranging to have the Lafayette groups bused home, while SGES has been placed under state and local authorities' investigation.

"I can't wait for all this to be over so that I can go home and sleep for a long time," LeBlanc said. "Then afterwards, to make it all very memorable, we'll have a big party."