WASHINGTON (AP) - For the first time in 45 years, thousands offifth-graders from Florida will not board chartered trains for theirannual sightseeing trip to the nation's capital.
The visit this year is off, more fallout from the terroristattacks. All over the country, school officials are canceling long-distance field trips or venturing closer to home. Parents are jumpy,too, about sending their children too far away.
"We just didn't feel that it was appropriate at this time tochance it," said Neal Trafford, principal of Manatee ElementarySchool in Lake Worth, Fla.
In New York City, officials were worried that school busescarrying students to the Bronx Zoo might be delayed and unavailableto take other students home from school in an emergency. The tripswere scrubbed.
Many teachers planning to bring their classes to the nation'scapital say anthrax scares or other incidents could close museums,monuments and congressional offices, leaving the visitors withlittle to do while in town.
Parents have asked school boards to cancel trips beyond county orstate lines, or travel that requires an overnight stay. During arecent school board meeting in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., parents askedhow many bridges a bus would cross to reach Boston.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., and other districts have eased theirtrip policies since the days after Sept. 11, when even walking tripswere canceled, but some limits remain on students' time away fromschool.
"We are still much more cautious," said Charlotte schoolsspokeswoman Nora Carr. "We have certainly cut back on the number offield trips for elementary and middle school, and the early years ofhigh school."
Those include an annual tradition for fifth-graders in manyschools, an overnight trip to Raleigh, the state capital. Studentsnow must make the seven-hour round trip in one day.
In Cleveland, schools spokeswoman Patricia Martin would notdiscuss the district's policies on long-distance trips, saying thatsince the attacks, officials deemed the matter a security issue.Officials cannot even discuss it during school board meetings, shesaid.
Trafford, who heads the Palm Beach County, Fla., school safetypatrol program, said students earned the Washington trip as a rewardfor being safety monitors. He said they probably will visit otherFlorida attractions instead - Cape Canaveral or St. Augustine, for example.
"While they're disappointed, I think they understand the reasonbehind it," he said. "They're pretty up on what's happening, and Ithink they understand the concerns we had."
Trafford, who made the Washington trip as a student and waspreparing to go for a 16th time, said many students will miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Some of these kids will never get to D.C.," he said. "This wouldhave been their only chance."
A few districts have kept their travel plans. Most, though, arebanning international travel or letting parents decide whether tolet children participate.
At Apopka High School in central Florida, most families given thechoice to send their children to Europe for a band trip declined.The two dozen students who chose to go will leave their instrumentsat home; instead, they will tour Italy, France and Switzerland.
In the absence of field trips, many schools are turning to theInternet, subscribing to services that provide "virtual field trips"with links to Web sites following explorers and giving studentsmultimedia lessons on places such as New York's Ellis Island, theOregon Trail and the White House.
Travel promoters note that crime, which they consider a greaterthreat than terrorism, is down in the nation's big cities. They saidmany teachers remain to long-distance trips, but must follow thelead of parents and administrators.
"The teachers themselves have been the most hardy," said JohnMilewski of the Close Up Foundation, a nonprofit organization thatbrings students to Washington for a week on Capitol Hill. "I thinkthey feel, like us, that the imperatives for civic education justwent through the roof after September 11."
Jim Hall, president and CEO of WorldStrides, the nation's largesteducational student travel, said students who visit Washington noware especially eager to see the exterior of Pentagon. From amemorial nearby that commemorates the victims of the attacks, theravages of the terrorist plane crash are still evident.
"Everybody wants to see it," Hall said.
Copyright 2000 by Telegraph Herald, All rights Reserved.
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