Families lose hundreds of dollars after Best Buddies school trip to Paris canceled
HARWICH - What should have been the trip of a lifetime to France for 43 students of all abilities and special needs, has turned into a disappointment for Best Buddies students at Monomoy Regional High School.
"I would say it's not fair, it made everyone upset, and we have to take our money back," said 11th grader Claire Cooney.
A year and a half of planning and fundraising-all for nothing.
"I'm pretty upset because I've never left the country before and that was going to be my first experience," said student Charlotte Skinner.
The violence and unrest in Paris over pension reforms forced the school committee to cancel.
The US State Department and embassies have issued travel advisories to France, urging Americans to "exercise increased caution due to terrorism and civil unrest."
In addition, the US Embassy in France has issued numerous alerts about the unrest.
"If the same level of unrest was happening in Boston right now, we as a school district wouldn't send trips off Cape Cod to Boston until the unrest calmed," said Superintendent Scott Carpenter. "Why would we send kids overseas knowing the unrest is happening."
And yet when school leaders raised concerns about the unrest to the Boston-based travel company Explorica by WorldStrides, it refused to reschedule the trip.
"The work we put into it does not outweigh the kid's safety," said Shana Grogan, a mom and teacher.
Even though Explorica's policy allows for cancellations in "exceptional circumstances" like "civil unrest, strikes, or other restrictive labor activities," the company told WBZ News the cancellation only applies when they decide that a trip is deemed impossible or impractical, not the group.
Officials with the company said they've have successfully run programs in Paris throughout this spring, with over 300 groups at this time, no other groups have canceled their programs to Paris.
The company sent WBZ a statement saying in part, "While we are disappointed that the decision was made by this group to halt their travel plans to Paris at this time, we will be safely and successfully leading thousands of travelers through Paris over the coming weeks."
"It's heartbreaking that Explorica will not even budge and say let's just reschedule," said Grogan. "Sadness, just being upset with Explorica in general for not being flexible. But mostly for the kids, they're sad about not going, some don't understand fully why they can't go."
Luckily, all the parents took out the travel insurance, but only 75% of the trip will be refunded and the company is also adding $250 to the refund.
Still, dozens of families will be out $750.
"It meant a lot," said Skinner. "Especially for the kids who like had to raise a lot of money and whose parents had to take other jobs just to raise money to go."
Seven seniors were supposed to go on the trip and likely won't have the chance ever again.