Leer en Español
At least 24 students and 16 parents who are Southern California residents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a self-guided summer vacation trip to the country, local media reported on Wednesday.
The Cajon Valley Unified School District in El Cajon, California, reported that the 24 young people and their parents are among thousands waiting to leave the Asian country amid the chaos caused by the withdrawal of American forces, the San Diego Union Tribune newspaper reported.
The 40 California residents have special visas for American military service, Cajon Valley Superintendent David Miyashiro explained Tuesday to school district board members via text message.
The students’ families said they were concerned that the minors would lose their places in the schools, so they reported the situation to school officials, who took the necessary measures.
The superintendent added that the District was able to provide information about the families to officials from President Joe Biden’s administration, who are working to locate the children and their families, the newspaper reported.
The school official stated that he was encouraged by the assistance provided by the government.
He also confirmed that he held a virtual meeting with federal representative Darrell Issa to tell him about the situation of the families who had to arrive weeks ago.
The students attend different schools in the Cajon Valley School District, which has 28 campuses.
Cajon Valley School Board President Tamara Otero advised that the families had tickets to fly in from Afghanistan, “but unfortunately they couldn’t make it to the airport.”
“The biggest concern is that the Taliban shut down the airport,” Otero told the newspaper.
“We are very worried about our students who are trapped there. We will do our best to get them out,” he added.
Classes in Cajon Valley, an area that belongs to San Diego County, began on Aug. 17, the date the students were expected to have arrived in the country.
The White House reported today that about a hundred U.S. and other aircraft from the international coalition fighting in the Afghanistan war had flown about 19,000 people out of Kabul on Tuesday.
