A group of Westchester-area high school students had a close call last Friday night on the beach in Tel Aviv but they’re not packing up to come home.Six seniors at Solomon Schechter High School of Westchester were within a few hundred feet of the Tel Aviv nightclub where a suicide attack killed five people and wounded about 50 others. None of the students were hurt, and Elliot Spiegel, the school’s headmaster, said the 12th grade class would not cut short its trip as a result of the bombing. Since early last month, 49 Solomon Schechter students have been studying at Alexander Muss high school in Hod HaSharon. They are scheduled to return to the United States on March 31, as planned.“Kids reacted [to the attack] in different ways,” Spiegel said. “They’re trying to process their experience, and their close relationship to something that they read about in the news.” School psychologists from Solomon Schechter and Alexander Muss have been in touch with the students who witnessed the blast.All of the students in close proximity to the Stage nightclub were spending the weekend with relatives or family friends, Spiegel said.
“The program itself is completely safe,” said Spiegel, noting the Alexander Muss campus is gated, and there is a high adult to student ratio. “The issue is what happens on parents’ weekends.”School administrators are speaking with visiting parents to make sure they are versed on security procedures.
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