The Slatest

Largest Canadian School System Will End Class Trips to U.S. Because of Travel Ban Uncertainty

A U.S. Border Patrol agent checks passenger identifications aboard an Amtrak train from Chicago to New York City on June 5, 2013 in Depew, New York.

John Moore/Getty Images

This is what happens when you have laws that target people arbitrarily, rules that are administered unevenly and often treat people unfairly—people stop coming. Not terrorists, not criminals, normal people stop coming. School children. On Thursday, the Toronto District School Board announced it would no longer be scheduling school trips across its southern border into the U.S. because of the uncertainty around the rules for entry and the risk that a young school child might be turned away or detained. And, to be honest, that seems fair; it’s hard to blame them.

The school district, Canada’s largest, which covers 584 schools and more than 284,000 children, sits just miles from the U.S. border and actively sent dozens of school groups to the U.S. each year, but no longer. “We just can’t have trips going across the border and a student for no legitimate reason being denied entry to the U.S. We’re obviously not going to leave that student and continue on,” Ryan Bird, a spokesman for the board, told the Associated Press.

The 25 trips already on the books will proceed as planned, but if any of the students are refused entry at the border, the entire group will return home, according to the Toronto Star.