KITCHENER -- 41 students and five chaperones from Listowel District Secondary School are back in Canada after nine days in Great Britain.
The school has been criticized for allowing the trip to go ahead as planned.
When they left on March 12 it was still two days before a nationwide advisory asking all Canadians to return from COVD-19 infected countries, but still the principal says mistakes in the planning stage were made that she's promising they won’t happen again.
Kim Crawford is Listowel District Secondary School’s principal and was one of the chaperones on the trip.
She says not all students had the proper cancellation insurance, despite it being a requirement for school sanctioned travel.
“To prevent this from happening again, there are checkpoints that will be put in place so it doesn’t happen for any international trips through the Avon Maitland District School Board in the future," said Crawford.
The trip itself may not have lived up to expectations but students say safety was a top priority staying away from crowds and using proper hand hygiene.
“Wash our hands, sanitize, everything to ensure we had the best protection possible,” explained one student in a Skype interview with CTV News.
The school says they tried to book earlier flights home but none were available.
Now after nine days in the U.K. It will be 14 days at home for all the students and chaperones.
They returned late Saturday and are now in self-isolation a task they say they are taking very seriously.
One of the students who spoke with CTV News says many people were quick to judge the group who went on the trip, but he says there also others in the community supporting them and ready to help out if needed.
