Superintendent Erwin Garcia at Monday’s school board meeting began his monthly superintendent’s report — which in previous months has been on topics like recess, ACT scores, and career pathways — with instructions he sent out to teachers and administrators about what to do if federal immigration agents arrive at schools.
The instructions come a week after an order from the Trump administration reversing a Biden administration policy under which schools, churches and healthcare facilities were protected from immigration enforcement.
Garcia said that district employees must follow the law, which includes protecting the rights of children. This is also necessary to protect the school from legal liability from violating a student’s rights.
The email also covered what educators should do if they find out that a child’s parents have been detained or deported.
Garcia emphasized that the district is permitted to educate children regardless of their immigration status under a 1981 Supreme Court ruling.
Student privacy is protected under federal law, which prohibits the district from sharing student records with immigration or law enforcement agencies without a judicial order. Educators need to be aware of this because it is anticipated that immigration agents may request data from schools.
Immigration agents also need warrants in order to speak with children.
Under the district’s protocol, if immigration agents arrive at a school employees should contact Garcia, their principal and the district administration. They should ask agents for identification and for relevant paperwork, like a subpoena or a warrant.
Teachers have been instructed to make a copy of the paperwork for legal review and to keep notes on the date/time, names and titles of the agent and what student or staff member they are asking about.
Should an agent have the appropriate warrant to speak with a student, as cleared by district legal staff, Garcia said educators should remind the student that they have the right to remain silent.
Trustee John VonLangen seemed incredulous about children’s right to remain silent.
“Does that just apply in this particular instance, because it seems like a lot of kids get called into the principal’s office for whatever reason, do all of our kids for any reason have the ability to say ‘Hey, I don’t need to answer your question, let’s check with my parents first’?” he said.
“I just want to make sure this isn’t something unique to this, that this applies to all of our kids,” he continued.
Trustee Scott McCulloch, who previously taught in the district for many years, said that kids often do refuse to answer questions.
Garcia suggested that VonLangen was being flippant because he has no reason to be concerned about himself or his family being profiled.
“You wouldn’t have that concern with your kids at school,” Garcia said. “But when you look brown and you’re poor and you’re in a school, there’s a lot of assumptions being made about who you are as a person.”
“For someone to ask ‘Are you legal in this country?’ I wouldn’t appreciate for someone to ask that question,” he said of his own kids.