Manatee students were on their way to Busch Gardens. COVID-19 forced them to turn around

Not long after embarking on a field trip to Busch Gardens, students from Braden River Middle School had to reverse course on Thursday.

The school district canceled such trips to prevent COVID-19, an illness caused by the new coronavirus, but their trip continued on Thursday morning, before a last-minute decision to cancel.

More than 24 hours before the trip, district officials announced a ban on field trips to theme parks. During the school board meeting on Tuesday evening, Deputy Superintendent Genelle Yost said other in-state travel would be considered on a case-by-case basis.

“We are not authorizing any trips, for example, to Disney or any type of theme parks at this time, where there may be international visitors and large groups,” Yost said at the time.

District spokesman Mike Barber said the Braden River trip was approved before Tuesday’s board meeting. A break will commence on Friday, providing a 10-day gap before students return to school, and Manatee officials felt comfortable with the Busch Gardens trip, he continued.

On Thursday morning, concerned parents reached out to the district. At least one cited President Donald Trump’s address from the Oval Office the night before, when he outlined travel restrictions and COVID-19 concerns, Barber said.

“Ultimately, the decision was made to go ahead and cancel that trip, and obviously once we did that, we had other parents calling that were unhappy with the decision,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors. As with everything regarding the coronavirus, things are happening moment by moment.”

About 150 students were on the trip, and it was not immediately clear whether families would be reimbursed for the cost of tickets, meals and travel, which totaled approximately $120 per student. Braden River Middle communicated with Busch Gardens and the bus company, and the school was optimistic about refunds, Barber said.

Students returned to class and received an excused absence if they were signed out, according to the email Principal Kimberlain Zenon-Richardson sent to families.

“The students will go to class as usual and the teachers have been alerted to the fact that they are without IDs, supplies, assignments, etc.,” the email reads. “Students will not be penalized and teachers will provide work for them to do.”

Another group — more than 150 students from most of the area’s middle and high schools — was scheduled to visit Orlando on the same day. The students were signed up for a conference by Future Business Leaders of America, but the organization canceled its event as a precaution.

Conferences are among several events that could lead to COVID-19 transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Your risk of exposure to respiratory viruses like COVID-19 may increase in crowded settings, particularly closed-in settings with little air circulation, if there are people in the crowd who are sick,” the CDC said on its website.

The school district will close for a record day on Friday, while spring break starts on Monday. In a recent email, the district warned families about the risk of traveling to China, Iran, Italy, Japan and South Korea — countries with high transmission of COVID-19.

Students and employees who return from those countries would be required to self-isolate for 14 days after returning, according to the email.

The district based its guidance on information from the CDC, which also recommended that people maintain “limited interaction” for 14 days after returning from a cruise.

Students and employees who travel on a cruise during the break will have to self-isolate for two weeks when they return, since it was “practically impossible to have limited interactions with other individuals in a school, school bus, or school support site,” the district said.

“Student absences resulting from these guidelines will be excused. Employees impacted by these guidelines will be subject to district policies regarding employee absences,” Manatee said in its recent email.

Herald reporter Jessica De Leon contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 2:27 PM with the headline "Manatee students were on their way to Busch Gardens. COVID-19 forced them to turn around."