As 16 St. Paul middle schoolers boarded a packed flight home after a spring break trip to Washington last week, their teacher watched from the gate.

Mark Westpfahl says American Airlines bumped him at random from the oversold plane when no one volunteered to take a later flight.

“My name was pulled,” he lamented on Twitter.

Well, @AmericanAir overbooked our flight…. and guess who can't fly. Yup. Me. 😟 My name was pulled. So, my trusted best friend chaperone will be on the flight with our #CHCougars alone. — Mark J. Westpfahl (@MarkJWestpfahl) April 6, 2019

The students from Capitol Hill Gifted and Talented Magnet did not fly unaccompanied. A second Capitol Hill teacher who made the trip was given a seat on the April 5 flight from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Still, flying home without their teacher “kind of felt weird” for the students, said Leah Logan, whose seventh-grade daughter was on the D.C. trip.

“I knew that she was in good hands with the other chaperone, but I don’t think that should have happened with American or any airline,” Logan said.

Westpfahl said in an interview that the airline treated his group well, at first. Students were invited to check out the cockpit on the flight out, and the two teachers briefly were offered a first-class upgrade on the way home.

Within minutes, though, the upgrade disappeared, and so did Westpfahl’s seat.

“Your name appears last on the manifest,” he said he was told. “It literally happened within a two- to two-and-a-half minute span.”

The airline tells a different story. They say someone did indeed volunteer to take a later flight: Westpfahl.

“According to our records, and after we consulted with our team in Washington D.C. as well, he volunteered,” the airline said in a written response Friday to the Pioneer Press.

American initially awarded Westpfahl a voucher for a future flight valued at the volunteer rate, rather than the higher rate paid to passengers who are involuntarily bumped.

But the teacher said the airline admitted to him it was involuntary, and he’s since been offered a larger voucher or cash.

Westpfahl, who has been in the running for state teacher of the year, said it’s possible the airline characterized his bumping as voluntary because he didn’t make a scene in the airport.

“I do wonder if being overly calm and trying to set a good example for my students ended up screwing me over,” he said.

Westpfahl now is waiting to hear what American will do to ensure minors and their chaperones never are separated again. Related Articles St. Paul schools superintendent gets high marks, but board wants progress on equity, enrollment, student achievement

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The airline did not respond to a Pioneer Press inquiry about its supervision policies.

Westpfahl said he turned media coverage of the group’s plight into an impromptu classroom lesson Friday. His students made the best of the situation, too, seizing the opportunity to tease their teacher.

“Two students said, ‘We’re kind of happy you weren’t on the plane because we were afraid you’d keep talking to us about history and telling dad jokes,’ ” he said.