Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Wendy Cunnah asserts that her son, Joshua, accepts full responsibility for his injuries and doesn’t feel teachers from Buile Hill Visual Arts College deserve the criticism levelled at them from other parents.
Recalling the events which led up to her son’s severe sun burn, nursery nurse, Wendy, said “My son had Factor 30 which I had packed for him. He put it on before he got to the waterpark and again once he got there.”
The mum then went on to explain that her son failed to reapply the cream, saying: “He was having such a good time on the slides, he then forgot to put it on again. He accepts full responsibility.”
Unlike Wendy who decided not to place responsibility at the feet of her son’s teachers, the mother of another child who suffered similar burns while on the same trip feels the school should accept responsibility for her son Connor’s injuries.
Recalling the moment she met her 15-year-old son on his return from the Spanish trip, Estelle Pritchard said: “When he stepped off the coach I could see the bulge of the blisters on his arm. He tried to lift his shirt up and I broke down when I saw the burns.”
Appalled by the extent of her child’s injuries, Estelle remembers saying: “Right, let’s get you to hospital.”
Admitting she was stunned by the school’s supposed lack of concern, Connor's mother went on to insist: “No teacher hung around to speak to me.”
While Estelle has dubbed it ‘total neglect’ on the part of the school, Wendy insists her child’s teachers acted accordingly, saying: “[They] could not have done more.”
Commenting on the controversy, school governor and Labour councillor, John Warmisham, said: “We have learned a lesson with this trip, but I do think the school did everything it could.”
Reiterating the guidelines for school trips, he explains: “Parents had to sign contracts before they went which mentioned children had to apply Factor 50 when told to do so.”
Four pupils from the Salford school required medical attention from the Royal Manchester's Children Hospital upon their return to the UK.
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