(ANTIMEDIA) The Toronto District School Board has announced it will no longer allow school trips to the U.S. due to Donald Trump’s travel ban. “We strongly believe that our students should not be placed into these situations of potentially being turned away at the border,” Director of Education John Malloy said in the statement issued Wednesday.
According to that statement:
“Earlier this month, the U.S. announced new travel restrictions at its borders, including the U.S./Canada border…While the court challenges have stopped the implementation of the Executive Order, there continues to be uncertainty surrounding these new restrictions — specifically with regards to who may be impacted and when.”
The director states that because no executive order is in place at this time, the board will allow student and staff trips already approved to proceed with the caveat that “should the Executive Order be fully implemented, resulting in any of our students being excluded from trips across the U.S. border, then the Board has asked me to cancel already-approved trips to the U.S. for the remainder of this school year.”
The statement makes it clear that students and staff attending the approved trips should be prepared to be rejected at the border, even with the proper identification. “For the trips that will be continuing — should students with the appropriate documentation be denied entry to the U.S. for no legitimate reason, the entire trip will return to Toronto and will not proceed.”
The Toronto District School Board is the largest in Canada, with approximately 246,000 students in 584 schools. Its decision comes on the heels of a similar one made just a few weeks ago. The Girl Guides of Canada also announced they will be limiting travel to the U.S. due to the recent changes to border entry rules.
In a statement released earlier this month, the organization explained:
“This decision was not made lightly. Travel is a unique part of the Girl Guide program and girls spend well over a year leading the planning and fundraising for their travel experiences. Our primary goal was to reduce the risk of our members encountering difficulties at the border and ensuring that no girl is left behind.”
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