TDSB eases U.S. travel ban for students at competitions
Students at the Toronto District School Board who’ve had their hearts set on competing in academic and athletic events south of the border will now be able to go.
Trustees voted Wednesday night to ease rules put in place last March that prevented students and staff from travelling to the United States this year. Effective immediately, students are permitted to attend competitions there.
The decision was in response to an outcry from youth involved in entrepreneurial clubs, athletics and robotics teams, who argued the restrictions unfairly robbed them of opportunities that could affect their futures, including post-secondary applications and jobs.
But some students, such as Josephine Winsor, 16, are uncertain about whether the loosening of the travel rules comes in time. The Grade 11 student at Monarch Park Collegiate was one of several hundred Toronto students to compete last year at a California conference hosted by DECA Inc., an international association of high school and college students pursuing business, marketing and entrepreneurship.
The DECA Ontario competition, which determines who qualifies for the Atlanta conference this April, is already underway in Toronto, and those who make the cut must decide on the spot whether they can go or they’ll lose their place. But Winsor said despite the Wednesday decision, students who have worked for months toward their goal are unclear whether the necessary paperwork, approvals and fundraising can be put in place in time for those who qualify.
It adds anxiety and stress at a time they are trying to focus on performing, she said, adding “it didn’t have to happen this way.”
The TDSB’s decision to halt school trips last year came in response to controversial travel restrictions proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump affecting citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries. That move provoked fears at the board that some students on school trips might be turned away at the border.
Under the loosened restrictions, a TDSB trip will still be called off for the whole group and everyone will return home if any student or staff member is refused entry to the U.S.
The changes were approved after trustee Alexander Brown moved a motion to ease travel rules in response to “the student voice.”
Brown is chair of a committee that heard presentations from groups of disappointed youth and teachers pleading to attend U.S. events.
The change is good news for a robotics team from Glen Ames Senior Public School, which can now attend a U.S. competition and showcase the automatic flusher its members invented, to help combat lead contamination of drinking water at schools.