Uncertainty over the U.S. travel ban instituted by president Donald Trump has put some Victoria students’ field trips on the chopping block.
The board of the Greater Victoria School District is meeting Monday night to decide whether it will axe field trips to the U.S. after the country temporarily banned citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering.
There are currently 12 school trips planned for roughly 400 students to travel south for band trips, track meets and educational outings.
Concerns over students originally from the banned countries are what prompted the board to review its policy around America-bound field trips.
“We serve obviously a broad range of students and their families within our district,” said SD61 Supt. Piet Langstraat. “We have a number of Syrian refugees, for example, and we have certainly people who would be coming from the countries that were on the initial list of countries that were going to be banned from travel to the United States.”
Langstraat said the possibility of cutting its U.S. field trips was born out of “the need to be very thoughtful about how we proceed.”
Some of the trips are already paid for while others are still in the planning stages, he said.
“So there are many trips where there are potentially no students affected,” Langstraat said. “Should those trips go ahead knowing that there are others where students may potentially not be able to get into the United States, that’s exactly what the board is deliberating this evening.”
The superintendent said schools will consider alternative trips within Canada or overseas if the board does chooses to halt U.S. travel.
The Victoria district isn’t alone – Sooke is also reconsidering sending students to the U.S.
