Kelowna-area school trips to U.S. going ahead for now

Official with Central Okanagan school district says no trips cancelled due to travel ban

School trips to the United States will go ahead as planned for students in the Central Okanagan, despite uncertainty surrounding U.S. travel restrictions.

“At this point, we have not seen any of the trips cancelled and there’s been no directive to cancel any trips,” said Larry Paul, Central Okanagan school district secretary-treasurer.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month banning citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States.

The executive order was overturned by a federal court judge, but several school districts across Canada have either cancelled or are reconsidering trips down south over safety concerns.

The Greater Victoria school district will not be planning any more trips to the U.S.

As well, the Greater Essex County School Board in southwestern Ontario decided earlier this month to cancel a handful of trips over concerns of safety and equity.

For now, the Central Okanagan school district will not be following suit.

“It’s hard for me to make any comments on other districts because I don’t know what their concerns are,” said Paul.

“We have not cancelled any trips to the U.S. at this point. What we have done is made principals aware of the situation and asked them to review any of the students going and see if there are any concerns and talk to parents about any issues that may arise.”

One Central Okanagan school music group was scheduled to return from a jazz festival in Idaho on Tuesday, and four other trips to the United States are scheduled for the rest of the school year: a music trip to San Francisco, a rock-climbing trip to Oregon, a band trip to California, and a humanities studies trip to New York City and Washington D.C. The district did discuss potential risks, said Paul. “There is a lack of clarification of who the U.S. border guards will and will not let into the U.S.,” he said. “The biggest concern is would a student get to a location then not be admitted.

“We haven’t heard of a tour group or a group of travelling students not being able to cross the border. If that happens, it will increase our level of concern and we’ll have to look at it again.”

Paul said he was unaware if any local students planning to go on one of the scheduled trips to the U.S. is from any of the seven countries on the ban list.

“At this point, we’ve got no indication from the U.S. government that there’s going to be a problem, so we’re continuing.”