Surrey School District cancels all U.S. field trips over ‘border safety’

A B.C. school district said it is cancelling all trips to the U.S. amid the ongoing trade war.

Mark Pearmain, Supt. and CEO of the Surrey School District told Global News that the district has a “vibrant and diverse” community of 85,000 students.

“Many of them are racialized, and many of them are Canadian citizens, but others are here on permanent residency or temporary work permits and we just recognize that the last thing we want is to have a student or staff (member) have a really negative experience at the border.”

Pearmain said they are taking a pause on any school-related trips to the United States for now and are encouraging staff to consider other options and destinations.

“We just want to make sure they are safe, students and staff, if they are crossing the border,” he added.

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Pearmain said there are between 40 and 60 international field trips a year, with about 50 per cent of those travelling to the U.S.

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He said this change will affect a few thousand kids over the next year, but they are hopeful it won’t be a permanent change.

“Our goal is just to make sure our kids have exceptional learning experiences,” Pearmain said.

Surrey became the second school district in Canada to make this change after New Brunswick’s largest French school district abruptly cancelled a high school band trip as a “precautionary decision.”

Monique Boudreau, superintendent for the Francophone Sud School District in Dieppe, N.B., said in a statement that it made the “difficult decision” to suspend the planned trip to the United States this month for a high school orchestra from École L’Odyssée, a public school in Moncton.

Boudreau said the decision came “in the context of a complex and uncertain sociopolitical environment,” followed by discussions with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.

She said they cancelled the trip after the department had indicated that it expected to receive guidelines concerning banning non-essential travel to the United States.

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Pearmain said that in Surrey, they wanted to be proactive to avoid any disappointed students.

“We’re hopeful this is a temporary pause,” he said.

— With files from The Canadian Press

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