New Hampshire ski resort hotel offers groveling apology to 40 UK students after destroying their passports and leaving them stranded in the US: Box holding documents was ‘accidentally’ thrown out with trash and destroyed
- The Kancamagus Lodge management team has taken ‘full responsibility’ for ‘mishandling’ 42 Barr Beacon School students and four staff members’ passports
- The students had to travel to the British Embassy in New York City – which is more than 300 miles away – to apply for emergency documents to fly home
- Their US stay was extended four days while they waited for the documents. They were initially scheduled to fly home on February 25, but flew out on March 1
A New Hampshire ski resort hotel has apologized to more than 40 UK students after accidentally destroying their passports and leaving them stranded in the US.
The Kancamagus Lodge management team has taken ‘full responsibility’ for ‘mishandling our guests’ passports’ after they ‘accidentally’ threw out of a box full of UK passports while a manager was cleaning the back office on February 19.
‘While collecting items to be disposed of, a box of passports belonging to one of our international ski groups was accidentally put in our private, secure on-site dumpster. Our scheduled, contracted garbage disposal company emptied the dumpster and promptly destroyed all contents,’ the management team explained.
‘We take full responsibility and offer a genuine apology to our guests and community. We have a responsibility to protect our guests and their information. Unfortunately, we fell short of this responsibility and our actions threatened the trust of our guests that we have built over the years.’
The 42 Barr Beacon School students and four staff members had to travel to the British Embassy in New York City – which is more than 300 miles away – to apply for emergency documents to fly home.
The Kancamagus Lodge management team has taken ‘full responsibility’ for ‘mishandling’ 42 Barr Beacon School students and four staff members’ passports, after ‘accidentally’ throwing them out while cleaning the back office
The 42 Barr Beacon School students (pictured) and four staff members had to travel to the British Embassy in New York City – which is more than 300 miles away – to apply for emergency documents to fly home
Their US stay was extended four days while they waited for the documents. They were initially scheduled to fly home on February 25, but flew out on March 1.
Management was notified of the mistake after a chaperone asked to add a passport to the box and a staff member realized the box was gone.
‘We deployed our management team to attempt rectification of this action, but, to our horror, there was no way to correct this action and return the passports to our guests,’ the statement said.
Due to the passport situation, the students stayed an extra night at the Lodge. The group then traveled to New York on an impromptu sight-seeing tour of the Big Apple while British officials scramble to sort out their new documentation.
‘We have 42 pupils and four members of staff currently in New York after 41 of the passports were destroyed whilst the group were staying at the hotel in New Hampshire,’ head teacher Katie Hibbs told Birmingham Live last week.
Their skiing trip had previously been cancelled twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Their US stay was extended four days while they waited for the documents. They were initially scheduled to fly home on February 25, but flew out on March 1
The stranded cohort of children toured the Big Apple, seeing sights from Staten Island Ferry and New York’s Central Park
‘The group have had to apply for emergency documentation to allow them to travel home. The British Embassy in New York have completed the applications with the pupils and documents will be collected on their day of travel to leave the USA.
‘The party are currently in New York where they await their flight home, four days later than planned.’
The pupils are understood to be from Years 8 to 10 and are aged between 12 and 15.
Their skiing trip had previously been cancelled twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Parents have praised school staff for their ‘phenomenal’ response to the problem, with Hibbs adding she was proud of her team for ‘managing this very complicated situation.’
A mother of one of the girls stranded in America told the BBC: ‘It was a horrific shock really.
The management team said they would work to revise protocol to make sure this does not happen again
‘It’s the first time she has been away from family for this long. And what they were doing was really challenging – skiing black runs or blue runs, depending on their experience.’
The mother – who did not want to be named – praised teaching staff for supporting pupils and Hibbs for putting a plan in place and making sure parents had filled out the necessary paperwork within 24 hours.
‘The way the head teacher has been problem-solving from a distance has been fantastic,’ she said.
The stranded cohort of children toured the Big Apple, seeing sights from Staten Island Ferry and New York’s Central Park.
Hibbs added staff ‘on the ground are supporting pupils to explore the city on a dwindling budget.’
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