UK Children on Ski Trip Stranded in US After Passports are Destroyed

1st March 2023

Last modified on March 3rd, 2023

The pupils from a school in Walsall in the West Midlands were on a ski trip to New Hampshire but could not return home as planned at the weekend after a hotel apparently shredded their passports by mistake.

The 42 pupils and four staff members from Barr Beacon School were due to fly back to the UK on Saturday but had to stay in the USA to get emergency documents.

They had been staying at the Kancamagus Lodge in Lincoln while on a skiing trip that had twice been postponed due to the Covid pandemic.

More fun on the slopes pic.twitter.com/Gs2XJzJD7a
— Barr Beacon School (@barrbeaconsch) February 20, 2023

The school’s head teacher, Katie Hibbs told the BBC: “Forty-one of the passports were destroyed whilst the group were staying at the hotel in New Hampshire.”

She said she was proud of staff on the trip “for managing this very challenging situation”.

The passports were apparently shredded in error but it’s not clear how it happened.

The school party travelled to New York and enjoyed some sightseeing while their emergency documents were arranged by the British Embassy.

Seeing lots of New York 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Ah2hqb22Fu
— Barr Beacon School (@barrbeaconsch) February 27, 2023

The paperwork has been completed and the party was due to return home on Wednesday.

A mother of a teenaged girl, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that the ski trip for pupils in years 8 to 10 had been a significant one for them as it had twice been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

“It was a horrific shock really,” she said. “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.”

She praised the response of the school and the staff in America.