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Opinion

Students need lesson in travels to Cuba 

Santiago Lopez
Opinion Columnist

A group of high school students and their teacher are in hot water this week over a trip taken to Cuba during spring break, CNN reported. 

Travel to Cuba has been restricted since a trade embargo with that Caribbean country was enacted in 1960. In 2004, the United States put forth even more limits on travel to Cuba, making it even harder to travel there. 

The students and teacher from The Beacon School in Manhattan apparently took the trip without a license issued by the U.S. State Department, which grants permission to journalists, researchers, religious groups and people planning on engaging in humanitarian aid. An education license is available from the State Department, but only undergraduate and graduate institutions may receive such a license; one is not readily available for high schools. 

There are a slew of approvable stipulations on the State Department's Web site. Had the teacher in question done a little research he would have found that his trip may or may not have fallen under the guidelines for a permit to travel to Cuba. 

Going to Cuba as a tourist does not fall under the permissible guidelines given by the State Department. 

According to CNN, a New York City board of education member stated that the New York City Department of Education was told the trip had violated State Department travel restrictions. 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asserted that an investigation is underway in this matter. What most likely will turn up is that the group took a trip to a country where they ought not to have ventured. The Beacon School should incur some of the wrath from the State Department as well. Though the trip may not have been sanctioned by the school, their official Web site was used to announce the trip and seek out applicants for the venture. 

When such a trip turned up on the school's site, administrators should have acted at once to ensure either the group had the requisite license for travel or that it was in the process of being sought. Had such tabs been kept on the trip, the school could have done more to make sure proper procedure was followed. Or, was it not, the school could have severed all ties with the voyage and saved itself the embarrassment of being subject to State Department scrutiny. 

As for the teacher, he might have been trying to provide his students a valuable educational experience, which according The Beacon School's Web site is one that has been undertaken since at least the year 2000. But a spring break trip that is more tourism than a desire to establish international relations is hardly a reason to risk breaking government decrees.

From an e-mail posted on The Beacon School's Web site, the 2003 trip to Cuba was wonderfully rewarding, as the students not only had a chance to sightsee, but were also able to meet with a Cuban economist who gave an overview of Cuba's economic history as well as the problems Cuban people face. This certainly seems like subject matter that could qualify as an activity of an educational institution looking to collect information related to Cuba for noncommercial purposes -- one of the qualifiers for a Cuban travel permit as deemed by the State Department.

Newsday reported that the group had a letter written on their behalf by New York Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who praised the high school contingency as "student ambassadors." 

Newsday's Web site further stated that Paterson is shocked at the incident, and that he knew the school district did not approve the trip but he thought the federal government had granted permission for the excursion to take place. 

Furthermore, the Department of Education in New York is looking into the events surrounding at least two of the school's previous trips. 

An annual trip to Cuba should not be the motive for bypassing federal guidelines for travel to a country with which the United States has a trade embargo. As silly it may seem to some, such as a Beacon School parent quoted in the CNN article whose sons did not make the trip, such restrictions are not in place to hinder the leisure time activities of citizens.

These measures are there to affect a change within Cuba itself. Granted, the United States stands alone in its trade embargo with Cuba, but someone has to be willing to stand up for the rights of others when the whole of the world is willing to turn a blind eye to leader's iron-fisted, totalitarian stranglehold of his nation's citizens. 

And when the United States government lays down parameters for travel to Cuba, all citizens of this nation should adhere to these guidelines and follow them down to the letter of each word. Forgoing these rules has consequences, and it seems this is the lesson about to be taught to those student travelers.

Lopez, a creative writing senior, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu