Morabito said most importantly she wants to make sure the incident doesn't happen again and that the staff is held accountable.

"They should have used common sense," she said.

Drone said Holy Trinity principal Todd Goodwin has taken full responsibility for the incident and that all the staff involved had been spoken to.

Drone also said it was his understanding the staff were only gone for a few minutes, although Morabito said it was her understanding it was much longer.

Drone said the trip's tour guide was at the hotel and a hotel security guard available. But he doesn't know if the students knew what room the tour guide was in or if the security guard was told by the teachers they were all leaving.

He did say the security guard should have been given a contact number, which he wasn't.

Drone believes the issue was a one-shot error in judgment and won't happen again, so there is no need to develop or change any policies.

"The practice has always been that someone is always available and in this case there wasn't. That was the error in judgment. I don't believe, at this point, there would be a need to revisit the policies.

"We definitely have policy around these things. In this specific situation, common sense would prevail."

tsaxon@guelphmercury.com