Education

EL PASO, Texas -- Borderland area school administrators announced Thursday that they were canceling trips to protect students from potential coronavirus exposure after consulting with state and local health departments.

After the state of New Mexico declared a public health emergency, the Las Cruces Public School instituted a travel ban that took effect "immediately until further notice."

At an LCPS news conference late Thursday afternoon, Superintendent Karen Trujillo said field trips, musical performances, sporting events and other extra-curricular gatherings of 100 people or more are cancelled for the time being. (You can watch the entire news conference in the video player at the top of this article.)

LCPS was also working to arrange for the return of a group of about 80 students on a trip to Washington, D.C. for a conference that was cancelled shortly after the students arrived on Wednesday. Officials said the group should fly into El Paso International Airport from D.C. on Friday night.

Elsewhere, in El Paso, "the El Paso Independent School District is canceling all district-related travel for students and staff until further notice. While there are no confirmed cases in El Paso County of COVID-19 (coronavirus), the decision was made out of an abundance of caution," said a statement from EPISD officials.

The district added, "any student groups currently out of town will be brought back to El Paso as soon as possible."

The Socorro Independent School District, in an update provided Thursday on virus precautions being taken, said: "Given the rapidly evolving situation, all out of town student and employee travel will be cancelled until further notice."

In the Ysltea Independent School District, a statement issued Thursday afternoon said, "Ysleta ISD has decided to cancel all out-of-town, non-essential district-related travel for students and employees – including out-of-town student field trips – until further notice. All other school-related activities, contests, performances, etc., within El Paso County will continue as normal."