ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Some Ann Arbor high school students are traveling to Costa Rica instead of Spain after school officials canceled the trip following attacks in Brussels.
Officials with Ann Arbor Public Schools canceled two spring break trips last week after the March 22 attacks. Twelfth-grade art and humanities students at Huron High School were to visit Italy April 1-9, while Pioneer High School’s Spanish department planned a Spain trip April 4-9.
Rich Beekman, spokesman for Boston-based travel company Explorica Educational Travel, said Pioneer High parents worked with Explorica to change the location to Central America rather than Europe.
The district confirmed the reorganized Costa Rica trip is an independent tour group not officially affiliated with Ann Arbor Public Schools, The Ann Arbor News (http://bit.ly/1oqrbnq ) reported. The students were set to leave March 31 for Costa Rica and return April 8. Beekman said parents won’t pay an added cost.
“Everybody is excited about the resolution,” he said.
Beekman said Explorica works to reorganize trips in an emergency on a case-by-case basis. He said travel insurance covers trip cancellations due to terrorist attacks within 30 days of a trip if it takes place where the trip is being taken. The Spain trip, then, wouldn’t get refunded for the Brussels attacks.
There was no further information available as to whether rescheduling would happen for the trip to Italy, according to the newspaper.
Source: The Ann Arbor News, http://www.mlive.com/ann-arbor
