Slovak Trip Leader Abandons Eight High Schoolers in France as Punishment for Being Noisy

A group of Slovak schoolchildren was on its way home from a trip to the United Kingdom when the tour leader left six boys and two girls behind in the French town of Forbach, near the German border. According to the Slovak news site tnlive.sk, the teens were allegedly disciplined for behaving inappropriately and disturbing the peace on the trip's final night.

One teacher stayed behind with the children, but the tour leader herself boarded the bus with the rest of the group and headed home to Slovakia. She maintains that she was simply following the behaviour rules agreed upon before the trip.

Parents Forced to Rescue Their Own Children

It was left to the parents to arrange the stranded students' return home — they ended up hiring a separate bus to bring them back. The journey dragged on and became far more complicated than expected, and the parents have called the punishment excessive, filing a complaint with the police.

"When the bus pulled away, the kids at first thought it was some kind of joke. Half an hour later they realised — and the teacher confirmed it — that no one was coming back for them. That's when the real shock set in," said Klaudia Uhor, mother of one of the girls. She added that the children's travel insurance expired at midnight, forcing families to scramble, since the kids were effectively left unprotected in a foreign country.

The father of another affected girl admitted he still can't wrap his head around how something like this could happen. "For the first couple of minutes, my wife and I just stared at each other — is this really possible in this day and age?" said Richard Segeč.

Source: novinky.cz