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- Two dozen San Diego students are stuck in Afghanistan, according to The Los Angeles Times.
- The president of the school board said the students had plane tickets to leave, but didn't make it to the airport.
- A Taliban spokesperson said Tuesday that the US had 8 days to finish its evacuation before facing "consequences."
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Two dozen students and 16 parents from San Diego are stuck in Afghanistan as the US evacuation deadline rapidly approaches, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The students and parents are among thousands of Americans and Afghans still looking to escape as the Taliban continues its takeover of the country. A Taliban spokesperson said on Tuesday that the US had just eight more days to finish its evacuation before facing "consequences."
Tamara Otero, president of the Cajon Valley Union School board, told the Times that the families all had plane tickets to fly out of Afghanistan, but they weren't able to get to the airport in Kabul.
"The biggest concern is that the Taliban closed the airport," Otero told the newspaper. "We are so worried about our students that are stuck there. We'll do the best we can to get them out."
The school district's superintendent told parents about the students' situation on Tuesday through a text message, the Times reported.
The students had traveled to Afghanistan over the summer on special visas for US military service, according to the report. Superintendent David Miyashiro told the newspaper that the Department of Defense considers the students and their parents "allies," and the school district was able to provide the department with information about the students and their families as they work to evacuate them. Miyashiro said he met with US Rep. Darrell Issa about the situation on Tuesday.
Mike Serban, head of the school district's Family and Children Engagement program, told the Times that the district became aware the students were stuck in Afghanistan when their parents started reaching out to the district asking to save their place in the classroom.
A White House press secretary tweeted that over 83,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 14.
Still, thousands of Afghans stuck in the country remain vulnerable to retaliation. The International Rescue Committee estimated that 300,000 Afghans had been involved in U.S. missions in the country, while only tens of thousands qualified for Special Immigrant Visas.