Angie Marion’s cellphone displays a beautiful sunset with a bright digital clock ticking down the days, hours and minutes.
And while the picture is pretty, the trip countdown timer now only serves as a painful reminder of the disappointment the Georgian Bay District Secondary School teacher feels for 25 of her students who were supposed to leave for Greece Sunday evening on a nine-day trip that’s been cancelled due to the coronavirus.
“I was expecting it, but it was super disappointing,” said Marion, who was one of three teachers slated to accompany students on the senior grade social sciences trip over the March break.
“We really wanted to provide our students with an opportunity. We all put in a lot of work and time to make these trips happen.”
Marion learned the trip would be cancelled late last week and began the process of notifying the students and their families.
But GBDSS students aren’t alone in their disappointment with students from Barrie’s Innisdale Secondary School and Collingwood Collegiate Institute also sharing in the collective letdown. Barrie students were slated to travel to Italy with their Collingwood counterparts scheduled to hit both Greece and Italy on their travels.
Dawn Stephens, superintendent of education with the Simcoe County District School Board, said the board had no choice but to cancel the trips, given how quickly the outbreak has escalated.
“This is an ever-evolving situation so we would look daily at what the WHO (World Health Organization) is putting out,” she said.
On Wednesday, the WHO said the COVID-19 outbreak has now become a pandemic with its director general noting the virus that causes the respiratory illness can still be fought but some countries are struggling with a lack of resources and some with a lack of resolve.
Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board communications manager Pauline Stevenson said the board has cancelled two March break trips that both had some travel in Italy.
"The cancellations impacted 25 students," Stevenson said, noting the students are from the continuing education department and St. Peter's Catholic Secondary School in Barrie.
"We still have one trip going ahead to Costa Rica on Sunday. We are working closely with the school community, especially parents to continue to asses the situation. Right now, the travel advisory has not changed for Costa Rica. Other school trips will be assessed once we return from March break."
Stephens, meanwhile, said the board has an ongoing review process for international field trips and regularly monitors the federal government’s travel advice and advisory sites as well as Health Canada advisories to ensure students aren’t put in harm's way.
Stephens said the board always wants to provide its students with opportunities to visit and learn in other countries, but must reassess trips and make difficult decisions when situations arise that may affect the safety and health of both staff and students.
But that doesn’t make it any easier for GBDSS Grade 12 student Andrew Ouellet.
“I was devastated,” Ouellet said. “I’ve always wanted to go to Greece. I wasn’t overly surprised, but I was definitely sad.”
Grade 11 student Emma Biggs had already started to pack.
“I had gotten 600 euros so I had to bring that back to the bank,” she said. “From their (the board’s) perspective, it’s likely safer to stay home, but I was really excited to see Santorini, Athens, the Acropolis and the Parthenon.”
Marion said the possibility of students and staff being quarantined upon their return to Canada from Europe likely also played a role in the board’s decision.
While Marion has been involved with successful “service-learning” student trips to Ecuador in 2015 and Tanzania in 2017, her last planned school trip to Kenya was also cancelled due to political unrest in that African nation.
Marion’s son Owen Eccleshall, who’s in Grade 12, has now missed two trips abroad with the cancellation of both the Greece and Kenya excursions.
“As a teacher, you’re sad for your students, but as a mother you also have to deal with your kid’s disappointment.,” she said.
Added Eccleshall: "The board makes a decision and doesn't really consult anyone else. We're going to Greece, not Italy. We put in so many hours and hours of work for this trip."
And like other schools, students and teachers also completed a great deal of fundraising beforehand to make the Greece trip more affordable, including the sale of Christmas wreaths and more recently a Greek dinner the students had prepared from scratch.
“We thank everyone who supports the kids looking to learn beyond the classroom,” Marion said, noting that while students will receive a full refund, the earlier fundraising efforts will be used to pay the non-refundable travel insurance portion.
For her part, Marion said she’s going to take a break from school trips and the many hours of volunteer time that goes into ensuring their success.
“Taken from my perspective as a teacher, I will not be planning any more trips at this point in time,” she said, adding there’s just so much uncertainty in the world nowadays. “I surrender.”
