School District 43 is not restricting travel to the U.S. for any of its schools but superintendent Patricia Gartland is reminding organizers of such journeys not to assume they'll gain entry into any foreign country.
"We think our parents and schools have made decisions around field trips and will proceed as usual," Gartland told trustees when the issue of U.S. trips came up at last Tuesday's board meeting.
Gartland was asked to report back to trustees as to whether any trips were cancelled after President Donald Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.
The district's decision to allow schools to make up their own minds regarding field trips differs from that of the Greater Victoria School District, which has told schools not to plan any more trips to the U.S. until there's more certainty around the country's travel restrictions. According to a report in The Times Colonist, a sister paper to The Tri-City News, the decision to restrict trips was made Monday evening.
In cases where deposits have already be made, decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis after consultation with schools, the Times Colonist reported.
Meanwhile, another Vancouver Island district, Sooke School District, has asked border agencies about the status of school-aged students traveling on field trips to the U.S. and has sought advice from the BC School Trustees Association's legal counsel.
Sooke superintendent Jim Cambridge said the school board has to consider the "moral and ethical question" about whether a class or team of students should travel to the U.S. when there's the potential of one of the students to be turned away, the Times Colonist reported.
So far, only one SD43 field trip to the U.S. has been cancelled but Gartland said concerns about the trip to Mt. St. Helens were about weather and higher than expected costs, not the U.S. travel ban.
Still, she reminded school trip planners that border authorities have discretion on who they can let in.
"There is never a guarantee that an individual will be allowed to enter a foreign country," Gartland told The Tri-City News in an email. "That is always the decision of that country's border officials."
But while cancellations haven't been an issue so far, the future of U.S. field trips may be still be uncertain. Riverside secondary musical director Glenda Ottens said she's heard groups are holding off on making plans for the next school year due to uncertainty about the U.S. travel ban.
So far, only one known Tri-City resident has been turned away from the U.S. border. Mohammad Rafati Nasr, an Iranian who lives in PoMo, was declared "inadmissible" because of his Iranian passport. He had planned to attend an engineering conference in Nevada.
