White House turns away foreign students taking a tour with their high school class (no passports)

[nitpicker]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6425913/White-House-turns-away-foreign-students-taking-tour-high-school-class-passports.html

White House turns away foreign students taking a tour with their high school class because they didn't bring their passports
•Seventh grade class from Henry Hudson Regional School in Highlands, New Jersey took a trip to Washington, D.C. on November 15
•A snowstorm delayed their arrival to the White House, where they were scheduled to eat lunch on White House lawn and take a tour
•The delay only left time for a tour, but three foreign students in the class were denied entry by Secret Service
•The students - two from Sweden and one from Colombia - did not have their passports or other valid ID
•The three students were forced to wait outside with the principal while the rest toured the first floor of the White House

[brooklynite]

1. Seriously, nothing to do with being foreign students

"No valid ID"

I've been on specially invited tours of the White House and I had trouble because they entered my name on the list backward. If these kids didn't have ID of any sort, they weren't going to be let in.

[912gdm]

2. Exactly.

It's on the school to make sure the students had whatever they needed to get in. It's one of the most secure locations on the planet for a reason.

[Ms. Toad]

7. Read the article.

The ban, in this case, was specific to foreign students without passports, not just anyone without a valid ID.

Reading between the lines, they likely had the same ID as their US peers, but because they were foreign, their student ID wasn't sufficient.

[tammywammy]

11. All foreign nationals are required to show their passport.

All guests 18 years of age or older will be required to present a valid, government-issued photo identification (detailed below). All foreign nationals must present their passport. All other forms of foreign identification will not be accepted.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/tours-events/

The school failed here.

[Ms. Toad]

13. I was responding to an assertion that barring them had nothing to do with their citizenship.

It did. The other students (assuming they were under 18) had to present no ID, the foreign students had to present passports. So the bar was specific to their being non-US citizens.

[kcr]

10. Were you a 7th grader at the time?

Hardly the same thing as your incredibly impressive, star-incrusted lifestyle.

[brooklynite]

12. Nope - DNC got me on a special tour five years ago.

[DFW]

3. Stupidity on both sides

The school should have known that everyone needs to present ID when entering the White House. Usually they should have had to send the info way in advance, and that it would have been re-checked when they got there. Not telling the foreign students to bring their passports was careless in the extreme.

The WH, on the other hand, knowing that it was a class of high school students accompanied by their principal, and having the IDs of all of the visitors sent in advance, could have made an exception, comparing their on-hand photos to the students' faces, and figured that if the rest of the school delegation checked out, so would these kids. The Secret Service would not have been happy about overriding the strict rules, but they could have done it under the circumstances.

[rgbecker]

4. What kind of ID would a 7th grader have exactly.

Certainly they wouldn't have a driver's license. I don't think my kids have any ID.

[MineralMan]

6. That's an excellent question.

Maybe the school issues photo ids to its students. I don't know. but your're right - 7th graders typically don't have any form of ID. We're missing some details about the security screening, which may have involved questions about place of birth. I don't know how the SS handles such tours with regard to security screening.

[tammywammy]

8. Under 18 US citizens aren't required to have ID. All foreign nationals are required to have ID.

All guests 18 years of age or older will be required to present a valid, government-issued photo identification (detailed below). All foreign nationals must present their passport. All other forms of foreign identification will not be accepted.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/tours-events/

The school failed here, they should have made sure the foreign students brought their passports.

[grantcart]

9. Agree plus "lunch on the White House lawn" in winter?

[ck4829]

14. And yet...

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142196473