Child unwell on school trip

I have a 16 yo and if she was on a school trip abroad and was ill I would expect the teachers supervising to check in on her. Some of the posts on here are quite frankly nuts.

last year when dd was 15 she was on the ski trip and fainted in the gondola with her friends. They called the teacher who advised them to let the adult from the ski resort at the bottom of the gondola know as soon as the first student got out. They stopped it, helped dd off and the teacher they had called (who was much further up on the same gondola) contacted a teacher who was nearer so she could get to dd asap. They got her back to the hotel and got her drinking water then called me to give me a full update. She wasn’t babied, she was cared for appropriately and I was informed appropriately.

I have a child of a similar age and agree with op, I wouldn’t be happy if my child was not helped with vomiting and abdo pain and I’m surprised at the lack of compassion here. Surely you would go and find anyone who was ill on a trip regardless of their age and help them?

Well assuming the story is exactly as OP claims, that he was extremely ill and no staff member came to look for him for 2 hours, I would say fuck safeguarding and give my child permission to take a cab back to the hotel where everyone is staying anyway.

Though many things don't quite add up, so I think it's more of a communication breakdown between the child, the teacher and the OP. It sounds like the poor kid was woefully unprepared for his first overseas trip and had no idea what to do or who could help him in that situation. Or, as some theorised, there was secret drinking involved the night before and was just a hangover. So he obviously didn't want to kick up a fuss and get medical services involved. DH is a typical passive hangover sleeper. He would get all the gastric symptoms and then be incredibly tired for the rest of the day. He would also avoid drawing attention to himself and basically try to sleep it off wherever he is.

Sorry at 16 YABU at 17 I lived alone (in a small cheap flat) but still navigated it alone so he should 100% be able to take himself back to the hotel and phone an ambulance if required. I don’t mean this to sound as harsh as it will but you need to teach him to stand on his own two feet he cant live a life expecting others to step in for him (life is a w**k stain)x

Well aren’t you a bloody saint! Get over yourself and have some compassion!

It’s not difficult to find someone in a theme park if you both have a mobile phone! And I very much doubt the kids are allowed to leave the site alone in taxis, that would be a safeguarding issue

Maddy70 is the reason many boys grow into emotionally infantile, uncaring and irresponsible men. It’s the likes of her that we’ll continue to see dreadful relationship threads here on Mumsnet.

It happened yesterday.

The whole thing sounds a bit shit. Surely the teachers are there to look after the kids if something goes wrong (like a child is ill) otherwise why not just pack them off on their own on a coach for a couple of days without any adults at all?!

Poor kid I’d hate to be sat around in a theme park with vomiting and diarrhoea! You’re not unreasonable, the teachers are there to look after the kids she should have gone to him immediately and gone back to the hotel in a taxi with him.

The teachers have got to go on a trip to Disneyland. There is no option to get back to the hotel it’s a coach drive away.

You mention that this is his first time ever in a foreign country? Sorry to be presumptuous but it's quite unusual to be aged 16 and never been taken on a holiday abroad. Maybe there's a general lack of preparation or knowledge of how to effectively prepare your kids on a trip overseas.

There are several obvious steps that could have helped the situation that were within your control, and not related to the competence or incompetence of the teachers. The outcome of him being ill and "lost" for 2 hours was not inevitable.

1. Tell him to find the park infirmary asap. Everyone speaks english there and he would have been treated for free and allowed to rest.

2. He needs an emergency fund (€50-100) which is only to be used for emergencies. This could have qualified as an emergency depending on how poorly he was feeling and how little help he was receiving from staff. He could have taken a cab back to the hotel instead of just suffering for 2 hours in the park.

3. He clearly had direct contact to his teacher as well? Since he told you nobody came to look for him because they were queuing for the ride. A queue ride doesn't take 2 hours so what happened during that time? If he was well enough to walk he could have found out where the teacher was and went there himself. Or repeatedly called/texted until they came to find him. Or asked friends to chase down the teachers for him.

4. Sounds like communication broke down somewhere in those two hours. Was he in the same place all the time? Did he feel better and decide to walk around again? Did he not bother ringing the teacher again, upon which they would obviously assume it's no longer an urgent issue? It seems unfair to blame the staff for not coming to look for him when it's virtually impossible to "find" someone in a place the size of Disneyland.

I don’t understand why you’re on here - if he’s in agony from abdominal pain he needs to go to hospital.

Your son sounds a proper simp. Why's he phoning his mummy to say hes unwell.. why isnt he using the contact number of the teacher in charge (yes he will have had that number)

I really don’t understand the need to stick the boot in to an unknown 16 year old boy who has done nothing much wrong other than get ill on his own away from home. Is he just an easy target?

At 16 in year 11 I had three PT jobs and a boyfriend in a different town I had to travel by national express coach to see when I had free time. Many times I was unwell or hungover or whatever and had to deal with getting somewhere safe/to recover. The idea that a 16 yo is so incapable they cannot take care of themselves when a little unwell is scary to me, what kind of adults are we raising?

I’m astonished by the lack of compassion, indeed common sense, shown on the thread and it proves to me why I’d never allow my child to go on one of these excursions as I see the modern parent/teacher can’t be trusted to do the basic and needful.

A mother has entrusted her son to the school and as such would expect that he be taken care of. I don’t care that he’s 16. He is still a minor otherwise the mother would just allow him to go alone without the added protection of teachers and other staff who were meant to be taking care of him.

To the posters who have been critical, I bet you’d all change your tune if it had been your child!

Illnesses can go from 1-100 very quickly but most here don’t have a bloody idea! I’m truly appalled.

My dd is also year 11. Regarding the comments, I think there is a massive difference between age 16 and in year 11 and age 16 and in year 12. As there are 9 teachers, one of them should have attended to your ds. I would be following this up to understand the school’s side of the story. It’s pretty rubbish your ds’s friends left him and that would be something I’d like to ask the school as well. If the teachers genuinely didn’t bother to attend to your ds, they don’t get to take the moral high ground with the kids, who at the end of the day are only 15 or 16!

When you signed up for the trip, there’s usually a form to say whether you’re happy for your child to go off on their own with a small group of friends or, if they must stay with the teacher. The teacher must stay with the group who chose to stay with her/him. Your child needs to make their way back to them - the teacher cannot leave them alone. At 16, this is not unreasonable. Some kids go to work at that age.

I’m really confused, why didn’t someone take him back to the hotel in a taxi if needs be - why did he fall asleep in the park?? That suggests he was made to wait whilst ill until the coach took them back at the normal time?

the best you can do is ask for the risk assessment and procedures for such instances and then make a judgment if their approach was reasonable or not.

ive not been to DLP in years but is the village not separate from the main park? If so it could have taken them an age to get to him factoring innit would be busy etc.

Some teachers are however lazy sadists who view school trips as a free holiday.
It seems unlikely that all nine of the teachers who were apparently present were lazy sadists. I think OP you need to check with school and make sure you've got the facts straight. It all seems very off somehow.

16 !!!!!!
FFS !!!!!

@EasterGrinch2024

For those saying he is old enough to look after himself, teachers are in loco parentis in this situation so would you leave your child if they called you distressed and sick when you were within 15 mins or so of them?

Agreed - we are in loco parentis & I would be surprised if parents on the thread would refuse to go and find their child who had been sick. If anything I always take more care than necessary as I would like to think parents feel confident sending their children away with us.

After he was found he fell asleep in a cafe till the park closed and they went back to the hotel.

Had he been drinking by any chance?

RedHelenB
You've made you mind up then.

No just stating the facts

Facts as you believe them, not know them.

Did he think Disney was more important than GCSEs?

Why are people so judgmental? A few days off revision is not exactly terrible.

OP I have taken lots of students on trips abroad & in UK & would definitely go and find him to make sure he was OK. I think 16 is still young if he's not been to Disney before. I imagine he would be overwhelmed in a large theme park. The other kids would want to go on rides & that's why they went off without him.

It's definitely not a holiday for a teacher - but yes it would be free.

I also think there should be a meet up - usually a staff member would sit in a cafe centrally. I hope he gets back OK.