Local students near the attacks

Michael Miller

Twenty-nine Coast Community College District students and one

instructor were among those shocked Thursday morning when terrorist

bombs ripped through central London.

Golden West College history teacher Dave Moore had flown with his

group to London on Saturday for a monthlong course in theater arts

and British history. The students, some from Golden West and others

from Orange Coast College, heard the blast that tore open a

double-decker bus near the British Museum at 9:47 a.m. The explosion

followed within an hour of three others on underground trains.

Afterward, Moore told district administrators he and the students

were safe.

“All of the Coast students and myself are safe -- shocked but OK,”

Moore wrote in an e-mail to district officials. “The bus bombing

occurred within earshot, but other than that, we have little info at

this moment. ... The students are notifying their parents.”

Although London authorities shut down the city’s buses and trains

shortly after the terrorist attacks, Moore said the students would

not be affected, since they are within walking distance of their

classrooms. As part of the $3,550 cost of taking the summer session,

each student received a bus and underground pass.

For now, the summer program is expected to continue as planned.

“The program had got off to a great start, fantastic night at the

Globe [Theatre], and the resolution right now is to keep right on

course,” Moore said.

Each of the higher education institutions in the Newport-Mesa area

-- Orange Coast College, UC Irvine and Vanguard University -- has

summer programs currently taking place in the United Kingdom. None of

the high schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District has an

exchange program in the country now.

Vanguard history professor Michael Wilson, who leads the campus’

study abroad program, confirmed that four of the university’s

students were in London on Thursday while participating in a summer

session in Oxford.

“We’ve been in phone conversations with the program director, and

everything is fine,” Wilson said. “They were tens of miles away from

any of the bombing.”

UCI currently has 209 students living in England, 135 of them at a summer session in Cambridge and the other 74 in a University of

California-system-sponsored program in Cambridge and Sussex. None of

the students were in London at the time of the attacks.

Bruce Hanna, the director of communications for the UC Education

Abroad Program, said a number of UC officials had risen at 2 or 3

a.m. on Thursday to call the program directors in England. UC had a

similar experience during the train bombings in Madrid, when about

300 students were in that area.

“In a sense, we’re relieved that it happened to be a weekday,

because vulnerability is higher on weekends, when students are going

into places like [London],” Hanna said.

He added that the students, who gathered for impromptu meetings in

Cambridge and Sussex following the attacks, have canceled several

events planned for this weekend in London.

A total of 326 UC students are participating in this summer’s

stay-over program.

A few hours after the attacks Thursday, the UC Education Abroad

Program issued a statement announcing that it would not close any of

its summer sessions. However, the statement added that for safety

reasons, “we are advising our students to avoid traveling into

central London for any reason.”

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at michael.miller@ latimes.com.