Wake Schools Cancel Trips to Washington Area

Wake County school administrators Thursday banned school fieldtrips to the nation's capital until further notice.

The decision canceled trips scheduled for this weekend involving159 students from Green Hope High School in Cary and Fuquay-VarinaHigh School. The students had been scheduled to visit museums andhistorical sites near the Washington Mall and attend a play.

"For now, we will handle this on a daily basis," said BillMcNeal, superintendent of Wake schools. "We will monitor newscoverage, the actions of Washington metro school systems, and seekadvice of law enforcement to see when conditions change, and whenit's appropriate for field trips to the area to resume."

Fuquay-Varina High School Principal Gerald Pickett said hesupported McNeal's decision. "It was the right call to make inthis situation," Pickett said.

Pickett said he had spoken with parents of students who had beenscheduled to go and said they all expressed relief that the triphad been canceled. He said the school has been able to reschedulethe trip for April without added cost.

In Raleigh, the Capital Area Soccer League advised teams bye-mail that a weekend tournament in Washington had been canceled -at the request of the host.

Eight teams of youths ages 10 to 18 were scheduled to attend.