KIPP exec apologizes after Lynn teen abandoned on field trip

LYNN – A 14-year-old Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) student from Lynn sat alone unsupervised in a West Virginia resort last Sunday while fellow charter school students and teachers took a zip line trip, her parents said Tuesday.Laurie and Greg Cataldo of Moulton Street want administrators at the Bessom Street school to fire the teacher responsible for their daughter’s care during the outing to Adventures on the Gorge in Ames Heights, West Va.”You don’t leave a child alone, period,” said Greg Cataldo.KIPP Principal Anna Breen on Tuesday said she has spoken to school employees responsible for AutumnRose Cataldo’s care during the trip, but declined to discuss details of the conversation and what, if any, action the school will take in response to the Cataldos’ request.”The safety of our children is our number one concern and the concern of all staff on trips,” Breen said.KIPP Massachusetts Co-Executive Director Caleb Dolan in an email statement Tuesday called the incident ” ? a serious error of judgment by an individual teacher ? “”While the child was not harmed, we make no excuses. The teacher in question will be under supervision of a veteran teacher while she is with students for the remainder of the trip. She also will be formally reprimanded,” Dolan wrote.Laurie Cataldo said her daughter and other KIPP students have been traveling since June 6 on a school-supervised trip that included stops in New York, Philadelphia and New Jersey, as well as West Virginia where they visited Adventures on the Gorge, a resort described on its website as featuring outdoor activities, including whitewater rafting and skimming along a suspended rope called a zip line.Laurie Cataldo said she quickly realized after her daughter called her last Sunday afternoon that the child was alone and without adult supervision.She asked AutumnRose to describe where she was sitting and when her daughter told her she was seated at a picnic table near a restaurant, she told her to go the restaurant and put an adult employee on the phone.The girl complied and an individual Cataldo identified as a restaurant supervisor agreed to look after Cataldo’s daughter.Laurie Cataldo said her daughter estimated she had been by herself for about 45 minutes before calling her mother and said the girl was not upset or frightened. She said at least another hour passed before KIPP employees returning with a group of students who had gone on the zip line, checked on her daughter.Gregg Cataldo said he questioned one of the employees about the decision to leave his daughter by herself. He said school employees told him they thought AutumnRose “was mature enough to be by herself.””A 14-year-old girl should not be put in the position to make that decision,” Cataldo said.Breen on Tuesday said she called the KIPP employee responsible for supervising AutumnRose Cataldo and other children on the trip immediately after learning about the incident. She declined to comment on the employees’ explanation or the girl’s account.Breen said she has spoken to Laurie and Gregg Cataldo and invited them to meet with her.”So far they have not. I make myself available to any parents who have concerns,” Breen said.Laurie Cataldo said she decided to allow her daughter to continue on the trip through the end of this week when the students return to Lynn. Gregg Cataldo said he will wait until the trip is over to meet with Breen so that he can also meet with KIPP employees who went on the trip.”Everyone involved should be fired,” he said.Breen said KIPP has organized student “end-of-the-year” trips supervised by school staff for eight years and “never had any children lost or hurt.” She said she “does not remember” any incident involving a student on a trip similar to the one described by the Cataldos.Laurie Cataldo said her daughter has attended KIPP since fifth grade and her son, Blase, graduated from KIPP. She said her children participated in previous school-sponsored trips and said KIPP assigned chape