Let students travel to U.S., trustees say

Committee asks for TDSB competitors to be exempt from rules introduced in spring

Budding entrepreneurs and athletic cheerleading squads are among Toronto District School Board competitors who may be permitted to travel to the United States this year after all.

After an outcry from youth who’ve spent months working to qualify for international competitions and events, trustees on the TDSB’s governance and policy committee have concluded that taking away those opportunities wouldn’t be fair — despite a restriction on U.S. travel imposed by the board last spring.

So they plan to move a motion at next month’s board meeting that would exempt students attending “secondary school student competitions and professional development opportunities” from the policy preventing trips south of the border.

“We’re responding to the student voice,” trustee and committee chair Alexander Brown said Monday.

“We want to show some flexibility. We don’t want to limit their opportunities.”

In an unusual move last spring, Canada’s largest school board said it would not approve any new student trips to the U.S., fearing some students might be turned away at the border as a result of controversial travel restrictions proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump affecting citizens of certain Muslim-majority countries.

Trips already in the works for the 2016-17 school year were allowed to proceed, with the understanding that if any student was refused entry to the U.S., the whole group would return home.

Brown said those guidelines would still apply to trips taken this year under the proposed exemption.

The trustees’ motion to loosen the travel policy followed presentations by several groups of students and teachers involved in competitive business clubs as well as cheerleading, and many other pleas from disappointed youth and parents.

Students outlined the intensive preparation that had already gone into qualifying for various competitions and events held by such organizations as DECA Inc., an international association of high school and college students pursuing business, marketing and entrepreneurship. And they stressed those events can be critical for post-secondary applications and job prospects.

Brown says if approved at the Feb. 7 board meeting, the exemption would apply to students attending educational, artistic or athletic events, with the final call on what qualifies left to TDSB director John Malloy.

“We don’t want to limit their opportunities.” ALEXANDER BROWN TRUSTEE AND COMMITTEE CHAIR