Ashley Dupre On Tiger Woods' Babes: "At Least I Kept My Mouth Shut"
Same-Sex Marriage Blame Game Aims at Paterson, Addabbo
Wife Tries To Abort And Poison Husband's Lovechild
Man Injured By Tree Limb Files Suit Against City
Rihanna's Random Airport Search
A public school is facing a mini-crisis because students and a teacher went to Cuba for spring break. The Beacon School on West 61st Street has had a tradition of "extravagant overseas trips with complementary semester-long classes," involving places like France, South Africa, and Venezula, but a trip headed by history teacher Nathan Turner may have violated travel restrictions - the group of kids was detained by customs officials on the return!
The Post reports that Beacon School principal Ruth Lacey "initially claimed to have no knowledge of the trip but later recalled having denied approval for it." While Turner organized it on his own, information about the trip was listed on the school's website. Now the Post has the Department of Education involved, and the DOE is investigating how the school managed to pull off its earlier trips.
According to the State Department, high school students aren't allowed to visit Cuba. Though students could face up to $65,000 in fines each, one parent said, "It concerns me more that we have a blockade on Cuba that's lasted more than 40 years."
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
That parent gets the "Captain Obvious Quote of The Day Award"
Gee Wiz 40 years is a long time...
You might want to clarify that it's not only high school students who aren't authorized to visit Cuba.
"It concerns me more that we have a blockade on Cuba that's lasted more than 40 years."
Agreed. Its time for the embargo to come down.
I'd visit myself if I had the time. So many people go from the US anyway.
C'mon, all those adults and parents, and not one of them thought that this may cause some problems? Sounds like they were trying to fly under the radar about it, and got nailed.
It amazes me that a dozen congressmen and two senators from Florida keep this embargo charade in place.
Memo to them: The Cold War is over. Cuba is not a threat to us or the free world.
And this is where I complain that back in my day, we didn't have high school trips to Cuba.
Your RSS is broken
"students could faces" ?
Anonymass: I do know that college students are able to obtain special permission for short programs in Cuba. Perhaps there are no such allowances for high school students and that is was the article is referring to? Anyone with more information on the details of the government regulations about visiting Cuba, please chime in.
It's because the impressionable young mind of a high schooler is soooo much more susceptible to the wily seductive charms of communism. nothing like a $65,000 fine to cure them of that. good thinkin uncle sam.
I graduated from Beacon in '99. They have made several class trips to Cuba in the past few years and there were no problems until now.
From the State Dept.:
//travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1097.html
My old high school- spelled with a B but in Mass.-made a school trip to Cuba- no problems. It happened after my time there, but looked great. I got to go to Atlanta and Washington DC. Do I feel cheated? Si Senor.
The continuing embargo on Cuba has to be one of the biggest ongoing hypocrises in our government, and that's saying something.
If you want to make a point about communism, nut up and put one on China, otherwise, stop wasting tax dollars trying to track down Americans going on vacation.
they must have done this to try and prove a point. Isn't it common knowledge that you can't go to cuba without special permission
Maybe the outcome of all this will help you all realize how ridicule the economic embargo the US government has imposed on Cuba is.
There is absolutely no reason that the US should boycott Cuba, and this ban has to be lifted now.
I thought you were living in the land of the free, but you are not even allowed to go to Cuba, that is not much freedom I would say.
Each country has the right to have its own political system and the US government should not interfere in other people’s political system.
Please inform the US people that this blockade should stop now. You can obtain more information on the blockade on: www .cubavsbloqueo.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=1012 Cuba versus Blockade: Cuban People’s web site.
1) The blockade is stupid and has obviously not accomplished its intended goal of ending Castro's regime.
2) Not liking the law does not give you the right to flout it; if individuals want to travel to Cuba in spite of the embargo, I really have no problem with that.
3) The school, however, should not have sponsored such a trip.
4) What moron parent allows their minor child to attend?
5) Again, I'm not in favor of continuing the embargo, but Cuba is not a "free" country. While countries should be free to have whichever government they so choose, can Bally really sit there and claim that the Cuban people have freely chosen their government?
Why should the US government want to play universal cowboy and decide which government should rule in which country. See the mess the US government is making now in Iraq, where it was the greed for oil which makes so many victims.
In fact the Cuban people have the most democratic election system and Cuba is a free country.
It is not to the US government to decide what policital system Cuba should have. Let the US goverment worry on their own people, as you have more internal problems to worry that to play universal cowboy.
Regarding your point 3, if you say in point 2 that people should have the right to go to Cuba, why are you against the school for sponsoring such a trip?
Are you afraid that the US students will see with their own eyes that they have been lied all these years and that Cuba is a free country?
1-a) The school should not sponsor the trip because it is enabling/encouraging students to break a law and putting them in danger of the consequences of breaking the law. Were the students given the proper information on the consequences of their actions?
1-b) They want to make a point about how stupid the embargo is? Hold a symposium, invite speakers, protest the government.
2) I have friends who spent time in college studying in Cuba (STUDENTS there with the proper permission), and based on what they saw and experienced, based on who they spoke with, I really cannot believe that the people have a truly free choice. Is life not as bad as the US government would make it out? Well, for some people (not all by any means), yes, it is that bad.
3) I did not say that it was up to the US to decide the type of government; don't put words in my mouth to push your own agenda. I don't think it's up to us; I don't support the embargo, and I don't support the war in Iraq. However, getting a bunch of high schoolers elected is not the right way to bring about change.
And of course I meant arrested, not elected. I apologize for the typing error.
19 - The school did not sponsor the trip, they denied it in fact. The teacher organized it with parents, who surely understood the legal consequences of travelling to Cuba (through a Constitutional loophole, travelling is not banned but spending $ is).
We have supported decades of attacks on Cuba - bombs, biological and economic. Bush has created a well funded Plan for Transformation ($$ for regime change) and allows known anti-Cuba terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles to get out of US jail, ignoring extradition requests.
Cuba is not a perfect place, but it has basicly solved many things America suffers with (and high schoolers care about) - homelessness, crime, AIDS, drugs, hunger, racism, etc. That our government doesn't want us to see it (but we could/can go to Iraq or North Korea) is not a good enough reason to declare it off limits for high schoolers.
I'm a student at the Beacon School and I just wanted to say that Nate Turner is a wonderful teacher and that we've had Cuba trips for years and had no problems until now. The laws are ridiculous especially because Beacon Students only went to Cuba to gain education and exposure. I don't think the matter is THAT serious. From my knowledge, there no misbehavior or trouble caused by our students. It would be a shame if a great teacher like Turner was let go over a stupid situation like this.
Okay, you have friends that spent time studying in Cuba. Well I am a Dutch citizen and I graduated at a Cuban University in 1989. In total I stayed about 9 years in Cuba, as I did some postgrades after I finished the university there. I didn't need any Dutch government permission to go to study at the university in Cuba, as we in the Netherlands are free to go to each country we want to go. I go to Cuba each year.
Living with and between Cuba you really get to know the country, so I can tell you the Cuban people is free. It is that dirty blockade that is trying to strangulate all the good the Cuban Revolution has created.
This is the correct platform to get rid of this immoral blockade, as now people will talk about this case, so I hope more US students go to Cuba and shake down the imposed US embargo.
Are you afraid that the US students will see with their own eyes that they have been lied all these years and that Cuba is a free country?
Holy propaganda, Batman!
Out of curiousity, why, then, do people risk death out on the ocean on anything that floats to get to Florida? Seems like we should ask them what they think of their democratic paradise?
As the US embargo and blockade has a great economic impact on Cuba, it explains why you have people fleeing for economic reason. None of these people are political refugees, but only economical refugees.
So lift the blockade and you will not see anyone risking his life.
As you brought up the subject, why does the US return the Haitians that try to go to the States in rafts?
The US government has been playing with this for some time, allowing the Cubans but returning the Haitians. Good propaganda right, all these rafters risking their lives.
This is a very dirty match of the US government and you have the US sponsored TV Marti that is inviting the Cubans to come over illegally, as your government offers them houses and a lot of privileges that the black population in the US does not even have. Isn’t this a dirty political game you are playing?
Stop believing the lies that the US government has been telling you for years, and check on: www .cubavsbloqueo.cu/Default.aspx?tabid=1012 Cuba versus Blockade: Cuban People’s web site why the blockade should end.
Just think about it Tom, I know that thinking is not something you are used to do, but at least try.
I agree that the embargo is accomplishing nothing. But the US gov't has tightened up on travel to Cuba in the past year or so. So anyone saying it isn't a problem because Beacon has gone before has little to stand on. Were previous Beacon school trips to Cuba always done under the gov't radar? Until recently educational trips could be done with the US gov't approval, now it is much more difficult, if not impossible. A Beacon parent told me about this specific trip (before they went) and that originally the school sponsored it but backed away when they found out it couldn't be done legally. It was an open secret -- don't ask, don't tell was the administration's approach. Was this about civil disobedience? If so, was exposing teachers and kids to fines or more the best way to go about this? Guess what -- there are consequences to breaking the law and the teacher in question, the students and their parents, and the school administration should be taken to task for it. Sure, work to change the law. But this was just plain stupid.
The students could be fined to keep the cuban mafia in little havana happy. Its all about the money as they take our tax dollars and spend them on luxuries for themselves and cry about the outrage in Havana, where dissidents have more freedom of speech than in little havana.
Tom, there are actually MORE rafters and boat people from Haiti and Dominican Republic, as well as even Ecuador in recent years, than from Cuba (avg 6-7,000). This despite the fact that Cuba is a stones throw away in comparision and Cubans alone get automatic citizenship and much other official assistance if they make it. Everyone else gets sent back or gets nothing. It is a deadly game we play with Cubans for the anti-Cuba propoganda reasons you cited - it makes Cuba look bad. But Hatians or Ecuadorians, or anyone else, do not make the news like a Cuban washing ashore does. And lets not forget the NAFTA paradise of Mexico, where migrants have doubled to number more than a million.
I agree with pretty much all of these posts. It's ridiculous that the American gov't doesn't allow its citizens to legally visit Cuba.
I also agree with the posters who say that the people of Cuba are not truly free because they cannot vote for their leader (and this opinion is coming from a very left wing Democrat from Canada). BUT Cuba is also not nearly as bad as the American gov't & media makes it out to be. Cubans could have Hitler as a leader instead of Castro and then they would be in serious trouble. Castro wants absolute power so that he can provide food, shelter and healthcare to his people (not the worst motives, but I agree that he goes about things the wrong way i.e. gives Cubans no choice).
Anyway, let the American students go decide for themselves, seriously. This is the land of the free, right?
I can't believe that some right-wingers are still keeping up their absurd prattle about a few Cubans trying to reach Florida because they don't have Western-style "democracy" or "freedom." Aren't there plenty of Mexicans risking their lives to reach the United States? Don't they have "freedom", "democracy" and - most importantly - free market capitalism? Perhaps people should learn about Cuba's achievements in healthcare, housing, education, and other areas, as well as their generous assistance to other countries, before speaking ill of them. The American government ought to worry about their own problems before taking issue with Cuba's system, keeping in mind that the U.S. "democracy" is nothing more than an illusion of choice between two practically identical elitist parties which lack any clear ideology beyond greed and xenophobia.
Blockade...ha! There is no blockade of Cuba. They can import anything from anywhere except the US and we are their biggest suppliers of food and medicine.
The United States does not trade with Cuba. The USPS does not even deliver mail to Cuba. We are not suppliers, biggest or otherwise, of food and medicine. Germany is one of its biggest suppliers of medical supplies.