Child unwell on school trip

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My son is currently on a school trip to Disneyland. He started to feel unwell with stomach pains and vomiting. He got split up from he’s group and was left alone in Disney village. I managed to get hold of the teacher to let her know and she said she would go to him. My son then text me and said she said she Can’t go to him because she is queuing for a ride. Nobody bothered to go look for my son for two hours. Aibu to make a complaint about this and take it further?

Keep going and someone will argue with you but I'm going to sleep now.

It's sods law that the one time you don't check on a child feeling unwell thatvl it isv going to be appendicitis not too much ice cream. I would certainly have checked on the kid, but going by how my own kids have sometimes been 'cared' for on school trips it doesn't surprise me in the slightest

Are you kidding of course it’s comparable…He is 16 not 6 he should be able to look after himself at that age, that’s how the real world works. If you want to say it’s not comparable this child should be wrapped all the way up because it’s a school trip that’s fine…but IMO you’re doing your child an injustice, the world is harsh and you need to know how to look after yourself, even if someone should have turned up for you, you should know what steps to take if they don’t

@GrumpyMiddleAgedCow, doesn't that depend on what the illness is? For all the teacher knows it's something like septicaemia or appendicitis and it would be dangerous to leave the child to look after himself.

I went to Disney land in year 11 in easter. Wonder if it’s the same school! (If it is the same school then all the teachers were definitely pissed!)

Maybe doesn't fancy it feeling like he's going to throw up and potentially in a mess from / risking further diarhhea. Poor kid. It's sad to ask for help from an adult (who is in loco parentis) in a foreign country and feeling quite ill. I'd expect more from a friend as an adult let along a teacher in this sense.

People are horrendously harsh on here these days.

People are fucking horrible on here these days. And that's saying something.

Very strange that a school has a trip to Disney Land for children taking GCSEs . My children’s school had them on a revision schedule for the Easter Holidays!
Anyway I hope your child is feeling better now.

Were you one of the teachers?

If this is such a big risk, would think it would make it more vital that a teacher not delay going to find them. Alcohol and drugs can have a devastating impact, especially on a naive or inexperienced user.

It’s awful behaviour of the student but that doesn’t lessen the teacher’s responsibility for them. They should check up and if alcohol or drugs are involved take appropriate disciplinary action once any danger or health needs are addressed.

While the accident at your school may not have involved illness, an horrific incident will be far more likely if teachers delay finding students who are ill and/or asking for help. Complaining may improve responses so that something horrific does not happen in the future.

I agree that the OP ideally needs to get the teacher or school’s side of the story before making an official complaint. It is possible that there was some miscommunication and, especially, since he was feeling unwell, maybe the son misunderstood what was said to him? Or maybe not, but it would be handy to try to check.

The comments that the OP’s son is not a child….well, it seems that in England a child is defined as anyone who hasn’t reached their 16th birthday, so yes, in legal terms, the OP’s son is definitely a child. He’s not a small child, granted, and is presumably capable of managing responsibilities and taking care of himself (to a point), but he is a child.

I think some people also don’t consider that age isn’t always an indicator of capability/maturity. People are individuals. They differ. Some 16-years-olds may be very grown up and streetwise and capable, other 16-year-olds may be very “young” 16-year-olds (if that makes sense.) They might not be as confident, may still be somewhat childlike in some respects. Some can be naive and inexperienced.

When you’re away from home, in a different country, for the first time, and you have stomach pain/vomiting, it seems natural to me that you’d feel vulnerable, especially if you happen to be by yourself at the time. From the OP’s posts, it looks like her son did try to contact a teacher at a number (a WhatsApp number?) with which he was provided. Perhaps before he called his Mum, perhaps afterwards, but he did take steps to get in touch and let a teacher know. It seems perfectly reasonable to me for him to also call his mother. He wasn’t feeling well, he was by himself, perhaps he felt at a bit of a loss, uncertain…it’s surprising that some comments seem to be more or less mocking him.

This thread is really mean. A sick 16 year old asked for help and stayed somewhere he could be found by a responsible adult. What's wrong with that? The OP should talk to the school and get the risk assessments and see what the procedures were supposed to be if a child needed help on the trip. Listen to everyone's story first - there could be a reasonable explanation. But its not spoiled for a sick teenager to ask for help and maybe expect some.

Totally agree. I would help an adult in this situation, let alone a child, abroad, really not feeling good, and potentially in a mess too given they’re vomiting and have diarrhea. Have people always been this callous?

What is wrong with some of these posters! Calling a sick teenager a ‘simp’ fgs. 🙄

It’s shocking that he was made to sit in a cafe until the park closed and fell asleep. Poor kid. I could not imagine any adults I know doing the same when feeling so unwell whilst away, they’d get back to their room for rest and to recover/be unwell in peace and privacy. Actually put yourself in his shoes, how awful it must’ve been for him. Even if it was a friend/another adult I’d make sure they were ok and didn’t want company or water or something from the pharmacy before leaving them on their own. Some people have no compassion.

Someone should have gone to check on him when he asked for help! Like
others have said, what if it was serious? Remember that 17 year old who tragically passed away on a trip despite reporting he felt seriously unwell. He was not listened to or supported. I thought a case like that would’ve made schools more vigilant on trips.

Hope your son is home and well now, OP. And getting on with his revision (JOKE!) 😂 I went on a ski trip with the school in year 11 not long before starting GCSEs, don’t think it’s that unusual. There was balcony hopping, illicit ciggies and booze! And we all did ok in our exams!

It amazes just how much of this bullying there is on a parenting forum where mums and dads (hi!) get together to talk about general parenting stuff.

The the comments some people think are perfectly reasonable to make here are more the kind of thing I'd imagine you'd get if you did a google search for "Rangers till I die Great British Blue sea of Ibrox Proud Proddy", clicked on whichever website comes up first, and typed the words "my favourite colour is green" in the chat box.

Not really the kind of thing I'm looking for when I'm asking if people who've been there and done it already if they found huggies pull-ups better than the pampers ones though.

Here end's today's instalment of "The Gospel according to Frogpole". That is all.

It’s just horrible. Makes me sad that my kids live in this world sometimes. I wonder whether it’s parents of younger kids who can’t conceive of how vulnerable older teens still are, including boys. Still, I wasn’t a cold bitch when my kids were younger too, so that’s still no excuse. Maybe people have got hardened by the pandemic?

I feel sorry for him and a tummy upset in a public place is horrible no matter how old you are. 16 is not a big, grown up. Yes, they are pretty self sufficient generally but he isn't 25!

For those stating that he is not a child, I ask this :

Is OP's son in a position to walk out of Disneyland and get himself to a doctor / hospital to be treated by himself ? The answer is No.
Is OP's son able to speak fluently the foreign language ? The answer is probably No.

It doesn't matter that OP's child is 16. He vommitted, and has been left alone and not checked out by the teacher and to get medical attention. Completely not acceptable.

If OP's child could get up, walk out off Disney land on his own, then yes, he is an adult. But he can't . Because he is a still a " Child" on. a school trip.

This is so weird. On a school trip a teacher would definitely be available to go to a sick child. There has been a communication issue and you are not getting the whole story. Contact the emergency contact of the school trip and tell your son to get off the phone to you and contact his teacher again. There is not one teacher for the whole trip. There are lots of teachers so one will be at a central location. They may not be able to go to him immediately due to looking after the group but they are not just going on rides rather than going to a sick child. Yes 16 is a child and if you are on a trip you look after the people you are on charge of if they get sick. They will definitely be doing this. No question. People in the comments are not teachers and really are clueless as to the work and prep and responsibility of teachers on trips. Still begs the question which school sends its yr 11s on a school trip now. Oral exams are pretty much next week. I’d be worried your son is going to fail his GCSEs.

This isn't the case in any school I've ever worked at....even for compulsory fieldwork when it's residential and travelling time eats into our weekends.

Child below had vomiitting and abdominal pains. Teacher, not being medically qualified, assume it to be gastro. Poor kid died.

https://www.ntnews.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/melbourne-school-charged-over-preventable-death-of-student-on-school-trip/news-story/665da125933f048ee2091f3f2519e6a2

I'm shocked by some of the nasty comments on here, especially from people calling op's son names and saying he is a wimp.

Also, for all the people saying the teacher couldn't come because she was probably queuing with SEN students. Just to be clear, any SEN students with a one to one requirement would have a member of staff in addition to the 1:10 ratio of staff to students so they most definitely have enough staff. If the member of staff you contacted was the trip leader she would have all the contact details for the other staff and should have got one of them to go. They should also have had staff on duty at a meeting point and they should've had the trip phone so they could deal with any issues.

Whilst it is nice to hear parents on this thread showing appreciation for teachers giving up their free time to run trips, it is also very important that you follow up on this op. The trip leader will have detailed all these provisions in their risk assessment and that should've been shared with all staff on the trip.

I have spent many days (and nights) on trips dealing with unwell students, that's what you sign up for. I am always way more cautious than I would be with my own kids too because I can imagine the outcome if I missed something....like what if this stomach pain and vomiting was appendicitis?

Maybe the son has been revising non stop before hand and so would be okay to take a few days off? Maybe he revised for mocks effectively and so knows the content? At this point revision should not be make or break and should just be consolidating knowledge