2 Wyandanch HS students stranded in Ghana return home after paperwork snafu

Two Wyandanch Memorial High School students who were stranded in Ghana after travel document problems prevented them from returning last week from a school trip are back on Long Island.

The students, who are 15 and 17 years old, along with high school Principal Paul Sibblies, arrived at Kennedy Airport around 5 a.m. Friday, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

The senator, along with other elected officials and community members, worked to help the students return home.

The boys were part of a group of 17 students and nine adults who left April 1 for the weeklong spring break trip, according to school officials. The students who went to Ghana are members of the school's Kappa League, a youth service initiative of Kappa Alpha Psi, a nationally known fraternity.

While their classmates came back Saturday, the two students weren't allowed to board the same plane, and Sibblies stayed behind with them at a hotel.

Babylon Town Supervisor Rich Schaffer said he put school district officials in touch with Schumer after they told him about the paperwork snafu.

“I can report that after much work by many, everyone made it back to New York safe and sound,” Schumer said in a statement Friday. “The students and principal are back home and I couldn't be more relieved.”

The students' families didn't respond to requests for comment Friday. Schumer, other elected officials and school officials wouldn't comment about what documents were problematic.

Wyandanch Memorial High alum Philip Tolliver III, who previously coached the 17-year-old in football, said he learned of the dilemma Monday and contacted his sister, Candis Tolliver-Tall, another alum and political director of Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ.

Tolliver-Tall reached out to political contacts including Schumer, Manhattan's New York Immigration Coalition — where she is a board member — and Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative in Albany to coordinate efforts.

Tolliver-Tall said the 15-year-old "just didn't bring his paperwork" and the 17-year-old didn't have proper documentation allowing him to travel outside of the United States, but the groups were able to get humanitarian parole for the older teen through the joint effort.

That is granted if someone has a “compelling emergency and there is an urgent humanitarian reason or significant public benefit” to that person temporarily entering the United States, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Tolliver-Tall said such parole typically takes months to get but was fast-tracked.

“He’s a good kid, he went there on a school trip, was unaware that because of his status he was not allowed to travel. I think they just had sympathy,” she added. “The idea of him being stranded in Ghana for months as the process played out would have been horrible.”

The school board approved the trip — which Sibblies said cost $90,000 and was subsidized by donations — on March 8, board president Jarod Morris said.

School Superintendent Gina Talbert didn't respond to requests for comment about who was responsible for overseeing travel documents or how the extended stay abroad was financed.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.