Area schools cancel class trips

Traveling closer to home is preferred since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Keeping pupils close to home for the time being sounds like a good idea to many educators after the attacks in New York and Washington and the country's current war situation.
The uneasy feelings of educators can be seen in the canceled trips in school districts across Mahoning Valley. Several districts are eliminating any travel that would require flying.
Band trip canceled: The Boardman High School band has canceled a trip to New Orleans to perform at the Sugar Bowl in January and trips by Glenwood Middle School pupils to Washington, D.C., and Canada are pending.
Students in the Poland School District will not be taking any trips that involve air travel this year, eliminating four trips for Poland Seminary High School students.
Gifted and talented pupils at Warren Middle School canceled a trip to Toronto that was scheduled for shortly after the terrorist attacks. Other trips in that school district such as a January trip for fourth-grade pupils to Washington, D.C., remain up in the air.
Poland Schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Zorn said teachers in that school system have been encouraged to take trips that are closer to the area. He said it is better to be overly cautious than to put pupils in harm's way.
"The board of education was in complete support of my recommendation that we not take any air trips this year," he said. "The reason for that is we feel until this thing settles down, we would much rather be prudent and if we are wrong, error on the side of caution."
Parents' decisions: Jim Stitt, assistant principal at Glenwood Middle School in Boardman, said his school's annual trips to the nation's capital and Canada are usually handled by an outside agency that will decide, along with school officials, if the trip should be offered. In the end, however, parents will likely make the final decision, he said.
Stitt said many pupils will be disappointed if trips are canceled or changed, because they look forward to taking trips when they reach a particular grade level.
Zorn agrees. He said pupils have been taking an annual trip to Washington for the past 25 years, but with the country's current status in light of the Sept. 11 attacks, he does not feel it is safe to have pupils in the streets of the nation's capital or going in and out of government buildings.
The only other time the trip was canceled was during the Persian Gulf War.
Zorn said he is not surprised that parents, teachers and band directors have all shown support for the changes in travel plans with little or no dissension.
He said the main criticism is that citizens are allowing terrorists to "run our lives," but he said in the minds of school officials, children's safety must be of the highest concern.
jgoodwin@vindy.com