Barnstable School Cancels China Trip Amid Coronavirus Worries

BARNSTABLE, MA — Barnstable High School has canceled a planned April trip to China as the epidemic of the coronavirus shows no sign of slowing down, according to the school's world languages head.

Grace Lytle told Patch the trip was expected to be "wonderfully culturally enriching," and would have given Mandarin language students an opportunity to put into practice what they've been learning. The most vital part of the trip the students are missing out on, Lytle said, was the connections they would make with people of another culture.

Lytle told Patch that, amid the epidemic, school officials were pushed to cancel the trip due to the number of active cases was increasing rather than decreasing.

More than 7,000 cases of coronavirus have been identified in 20 countries in recent weeks, with 99 percent of those cases in China. Hundreds of other people with symptoms are being tested. The virus has so far caused 361 deaths in China, according to a New York Times report.

"When we make plans to travel, we do so with the students' well-being at the heart of every decision," Lytle told Patch.

Massachusetts recently recorded its first case of the virus. Officials said the man is a University of Massachusetts at Boston student who has been isolated since he sought medical care soon after returning to Massachusetts from a trip to the Chinese city Wuhan, the epicenter of the epidemic.

His close contacts are being monitored for symptoms of the virus. Officials said the risk of catching the virus in Massachusetts remains low.

Related: State Confirms First Massachusetts Coronavirus Case

The 10-day school trip was supposed to last through the April spring break.

School officials decided to cancel the trip early to give families time to make alternative plans for the students' spring breaks.

Lytle said the students were heartbroken, but that the school wouldn't put them at risk "for anything."

Many of the students' international trips aren't all vacation, Lytle told Patch. In recent years, students visited Peru and helped build a women's center in Peru for women to sell their artifacts, and visited Cuba to work on a farm.

While it's the seniors' last chance to take a school trip to China, Lytle says, it's not necessarily too late for the younger grades. She hopes the school will be able to revisit the concept of a China trip next year.

"I wish we could wave a magic wand and make it all go away," she told Patch. "We'll keep working on creating new opportunities for them."