More than 30 California Students Trapped in Afghanistan

Public school district officials from Sacramento and San Diego, as well as local government officials are trying to help the students and their families return to the U.S.

More than 30 California Students Trapped in Afghanistan

Image via Adobe, by Yagnik

At least 30 students from three California public school districts are still in Afghanistan after U.S. armed forces withdrew from the country on Monday.

School officials from a district in the San Diego area and two in the Sacramento area said they’ve been communicating with the families who fear they’ve been forgotten by the U.S. government, reports KTLA. The students and their families had travelled to Afghanistan to visit their relatives in the spring or summer before the Taliban took over the country.

Most of the children are accompanied by their parents, and some of the students were born in the U.S., making them U.S. citizens. The families who travelled to Afghanistan did so on their own and weren’t involved in any organized school trips.

The Sacramento area is home to one of the nation’s largest Afghan American communities, reports NPR. It’s unclear how they will make it home to the U.S.

“We believe that some of these families may be in transit out of Afghanistan, as we have not been able to reach many of them in the last few days,” Raj Rai, director of communications for the San Juan Unified School District, told USA Today in an email.

KTLA reports that some of the families told school district officials that they tried to reach the Kabul airport but couldn’t get through Taliban checkpoints or through the crowds of Afghans surrounding the airport.

Since August 14, more than 122,000 people were evacuated from the country, with 6,000 of them being Americans, reports USA Today. Between 100 and 200 Americans are still in Afghanistan, and the Biden administration said that those who want to return to the U.S. will be able to do so.

If you appreciated this article and want to receive more valuable industry content like this, click here to sign up for our FREE digital newsletters!

About the Author

robin hattersley headshot
Contact:

Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.

Leading in Turbulent Times: Effective Campus Public Safety Leadership for the 21st Century

This new webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, “helicopter” parents, emergency notification, town-gown relationships, brand management, Greek Life, student recruitment, faculty, and more into their roles and develop the necessary skills to successfully lead their departments. Register today to attend this free webcast!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get Our Newsletters
Campus Safety Conference promo