Surrey school district pauses new U.S. field trips to ensure student safety

Amid political and security tensions, B.C.’s largest school district has changed its policy for field trips in the United States.

“Surrey Schools has directed our schools and staff to pause booking future travel to the United States, certainly for the remainder of this year and looking into next year,” said District Superintendent Mark Pearmain.

“We really want to make sure that our students are safe, and we are home in Surrey Schools to a lot of students who are not necessarily Canadian citizens or might be here on permanent resident cards or others. We are concerned they could experience some possible challenges,” he told 1130 NewsRadio.

Pearmain says Surrey Schools is suggesting teachers and school-based administration consider field trip opportunities within British Columbia and Canada first.

“We’ve also done that for professional development opportunities for staff. If they are looking for professional development opportunities, let’s look internally first to see if there are ways to support the Canadian economy and support Canadian organizations.”

Field trip requests within Surrey Schools require district review and approval.

“There are sporting events, there’s band, music events — it could be dance. Obviously there are curricular or experiential events that different groups can go to. We have had a longstanding practice of going down and experiencing those for our kids,” said Pearmain.

“At this point in time, we are just asking folks to take a look to see if there are other options first here in Canada before they consider heading down to the States until we get a sense of clarity for the security and safety of our students.”

In the meantime, Pearmain remains optimistic political and security tensions with the U.S. will ease.

“We are hopeful that in the future things will settle down and we can return to more of a normal process and more opportunities, but, for now, we are being cautious.”

B.C.’s second-largest school district is taking a different approach to U.S. field trips.

“The Vancouver School Board’s top priority is the safety and well-being of students and staff. We evaluate all field study requests on a case-by-case basis to determine the educational outcomes, safety and security of students and staff,” said a VSB spokesperson in an emailed statement.

“To date, we do not have a district policy that prohibits field study requests to the United States. However, we continue to monitor the changing political climate and take this into account as we receive them.”

On Friday, the federal government updated its travel advice and advisories for those heading to the U.S., saying they should be prepared to comply with all directions from border officers.

Global Affairs Canada travellers should expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices.

If denied entry, there is a risk of detainment before deportation, and Global Affairs says it cannot intervene.

The travel updates come after Canadians and other travellers have been detained at US immigration facilities after being denied entry by the states.