Canada's largest school board, scared students will get stopped at the border, cancels U.S. trips

Elementary school children.
(Image credit: iStock)

The Toronto District School Board, the largest in Canada, announced Thursday it has made the "difficult decision" to indefinitely cancel all future trips to the United States, due to President Trump's temporarily blocked travel bans that keep people from several Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

"It's about inclusion, equity, and fairness," school board spokesman Ryan Bird told BuzzFeed News. "We don't want some of our students stopped and not being let in at the border for no legitimate reason." The board serves 245,000 kids at 584 schools, and every year, students takes dozens of trips to performances, sporting events, and conferences all over the United States. Bird said 25 planned trips will move forward, but should one of the 900 students participating be detained at the border, they "will turn back." The school system is one of the most diverse in the world, Bird added, "and we're committed to promoting that."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.