An Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps group from Marietta High School were safely back in school Monday morning, the principal said.
Four students and one of the chaperones were rescued Friday night from a rip current near Cocoa Beach, Fla., Marietta Principal Gabe Carmona told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
A group of 40 high school students and four chaperones left Marietta on Wednesday night as part of a career exploration trip, Carmona said. They went to visit Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, Fla., as well as Kennedy Space Center.
It’s a trip the Air Force JROTC members have been taking for more than seven years.
During their last stop, four of the students suddenly went from waist-high water to not being able to find secure footing, Carmona said.
Brevard County Fire Rescue officials said the group was caught in a rip current.
Col. James Wilson, who was one of the JROTC chaperones, ran into the water to try to help the students.
The five people in the water never lost consciousness and were heading back to shore when emergency crews arrived, Carmona said.
“Another chaperone called 911 to be safe,” he said.
Because some of the teenagers had ingested water, they and Wilson were taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out.
The charter bus left with two chaperones to head back to Marietta as scheduled, Carmona said.
Chenedra Garnigan, a school counselor and chaperone on the trip, stayed in Florida with the hospitalized group.
Wilson was released after an hour, but the teens were observed for eight hours as a precaution. One student failed a body temperature test and was transferred to a hospital in Orlando, Carmona said.
Wilson went with that student, who was released from the hospital at noon Saturday.
All six members of the group rented a car and arrived back in Marietta on Sunday, Carmona said.
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