In light of the attacks on the city of Paris by Islamic terrorists, Three Village Central School District has decided to cancel all field trips that have been planned for New York City and will not approve future trips to New York City.

We, at Kaleidoscope, feel that this is a mistake on the part of our school district.  If we avoid traveling to New York City, if we change educational experiences, if we adjust our lives by avoiding a certain place, we are letting the terrorists win.  They have been successful.  They have filled us with enough terror to make us change the way we live our lives.

Hasn’t the recent tragedy in San Bernardino shown us that a terrorist act can occur anywhere? Even in a sleepy suburb of Los Angeles, at an innocuous county facility that works to help people with special needs— hardly a place of the kind of “debauchery” that spurred the attack locations in Paris — we see terrorist behavior.  Is staying in Setauket really safer than traveling to New York City?

We live in a time when terrorist attacks are a possibility.  We live at a time when school shootings are possibilities.  We live at a time when random acts of violence occur on a daily basis.  We know we have to be alert, pay attention, and be aware.  We know we have to say something if we see something.  We are not suggesting that we should live our lives in denial of dangers that are real.  We are saying that a decision to ban trips to New York City is fear-mongering. 

In his address to the nation on Sunday night, President Obama appealed to Americans to be strong and not give in to terrorism.  Kaleidoscope agrees.