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Trip to Europe for Mahanoy Area High School students in question

The coronavirus outbreak is spoiling plans for a trip to Europe for students in Schuylkill County.

MAHANOY CITY, Pa. — A school district in Schuylkill County has been working on a trip to Europe for its high school students. 

For two years, a trip to Europe has been in the works for students at Mahanoy Area High School. 

A memo sent to parents by the school district states that if students decide to go on the trip at the end of the month, they'll have to be quarantined for 14 days once they return on April 5. That includes any other siblings who also live in the household. 

While the absences will be excused and course work will be provided, students won't be able to return to class until they get cleared by a doctor and can't participate in any extracurricular activities.

"It's a smart policy, what they're asking for the parents to do. It's their choice. They're leaving the parents to have the choice of whether the children should go instead of canceling it. It's to protect other children. If they didn't say, 'stay home for two weeks,' and one of the kids got sick, there would be a lawsuit, somebody crying saying, 'why'd you let them go?'" said Glenn Donelson from Mahanoy City.

A parent tells Newswatch 16 that some students have decided they won't be going on the trip. A decision has not been made on if the cost of trips, which were booked through the travel company Explorica will be refunded. A decision on that could come at a meeting between parents and the district Wednesday night.

We reached out to the district for comment, but we got no response.

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