Heeding a State Department warning about escalating violence along the Mexican border, area universities are urging students to take their spring break vacations elsewhere.
Bayside Church -- the area's largest mega-church -- has told 700 high school and college students who planned to take spring break in Mexico that it had canceled the trip and its outreach projects.
Instead, the group will travel to Fresno to help the needy in that community.
A State Department warning about the murders, abductions and drug violence issued Feb. 20 remains in effect.
It says: "Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an increasingly violent conflict -- both among themselves and with Mexican security services -- for control of narcotics trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexico border."
That was enough to prompt officials at California State University, Sacramento, and the University of California, Davis, to warn their students of the danger.
"Go someplace else for spring break," said Jack Godwin, Sacramento State's chief international officer.
He said the university warned students in e-mails sent March 2.
While the university can't stop students from seeking the traditional fun in the sun, he said campus officials have stressed safer and more meaningful ways to spend the holiday break.
Davis officials urged students to read and understand the State Department's alert before making vacation plans.
On Sunday, officials of the area's Bayside churches -- with a membership of more than 13,000 among several congregations -- announced that they had called off their spring break student outreach program in Mexico for the first time in 13 years.
"We looked at the risk factors and decided this isn't something we wanted to do with minors," Bayside's Jordanna Zumot, global outreach pastor, said.
Zumot said that while the Mexican community where they work is well south of the most dangerous areas, the church board decided that it still wasn't worth the risk.
Last year, Bayside took 800 kids to Guadalupe Victoria, Mexico.
Zumot said the decision was disappointing on both sides of the border.
Some students were saddened that they won't be able to continue work begun in prior years and the Mexican churches and nonprofits were upset that they won't have their traditional spring guests.
Reach Ed Fletcher at efletcher(at)sacbee.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
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