By Dominic Abassi

SD68 puts two year hold on international trips, review coming

Sep 1, 2016 | 11:39 PM

NANAIMO — Overseas field trips could be a thing of the past for Nanaimo-Ladysmith School District students.
 
SD68 board trustees have passed a motion calling for a two year stop to all school sanctioned trips outside of North America.

The move comes less than two months after a group of 85 Nanaimo students and chaperones had a European trip cut short after some students were just hundreds of feet away from the terror attack in Nice, France.

The district made the decision to cut the trip short, a call that was panned by some parents.
 
Superintendent John Blain says the process involved in bringing home their students from Nice was a very large operation.

“We need to take some time with the Ministry and all the different parties to look at that and come up with some recommendations that will improve it if we want to carry on with our trips or suggest it’s not something we want to carry on with. We’ll do the analysis,” says Blain.

Blain says there’s always the possibility that SD68 will no longer take part in overseas trips.

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“I think some school districts have moved there. Right now it’s left to the individual school districts to apply whatever policy and procedure they believe. An intricate part of that as the world is evolving is the safety of students abroad and are school districts willing to take on those liabilities of safeties.”

There will be opportunities for parents and other stakeholders to offer feedback on the policy moving forward, according to Blain.

The decision from the district’s standpoint, says Blain, comes down to removing international field trips from their policy, or keeping it in and creating procedures for it.

There are certain things that could have been done better during the “massive undertaking” of ending this summer’s trip, Blain says.

Blain had a simple answer when asked if he believed this decision may also be unpopular with some parents, like the choice made in July.

“All I can say is our decision making is based on the safety of the students.”