Parents and Educators Speak Out Against ICE at Alachua County School Board Meeting
Parents and educators alike spoke out against the Alachua County Public Schools’ (ACPS) policy on interaction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the school board meeting yesterday.
Public comment begins at 53:00
Board member Sarah Rockwell said over 20 people were signed up for public comment and limited speaking time to two minutes per person.
Many public commenters expressed concern over the school board’s memo on interactions with ICE, sent out February 10.
Former educator and school administrator Laura Franklin said, “By agreeing to enforce this mandate, you, the school board, would be asking teachers and administrators to violate the standards of ethical conduct that the board itself is responsible for upholding…. To quote, ‘Protect the student from conditions harmful to learning and mental and/or physical health and/or safety.’ If you follow through with the new regulations, would you not have to rewrite your standards of ethical conduct?”
Parent Robin Sujose said, “Schools should be a safe haven for all students, not extensions of federal immigration enforcement. This policy risks eroding trust between students, families, and educators and may deter students from attending school out of fear. Moreover, consider the psychological impact of all students; witnessing such events can be traumatic, leading to anxiety, fear, and long-term emotional distress. I worry about the effect this could have on my own children if they were to witness such an incident after school. I urge the board to stand up to tyranny, push back against this constitutional crisis, and find a way that works. Get creative. It's not really fun watching your county capitulate out of fear of retaliation.”
Immigration lawyer Denise Mendez said, “I didn’t know that you guys already agreed with Governor DeSantis to do something that is blatantly illegal. You are literally the last line of defense that these children have before they are snatched from their families and taken away into jails without notifying family members. They can be taken to Arizona. They can be taken to Texas or Louisiana. They will be taken to a jail without a warrant, a judicial warrant, and I cannot believe for the life of me that you agree and you just talked about how much you care for kids? You should be ashamed of yourselves. You do not do that to children. They didn’t ask to be here.”
Gainesville High School teacher Rebecca Reagen said, “Complying with ICE will be counter to why most teachers join the profession despite the low pay, lack of respect by most of society, and a severe lack of resources. When I started my career in Alachua County, someone told me, ‘Each child is either the most important thing in the world to someone or they're not the most important thing to anyone.’ I think about that a lot. How can teachers be expected to sit idly by? Teachers are implicitly expected to sacrifice their lives for students, literally. We ask students to be brave every day. They all know about the possibility of violence at school. They talk about it. They joke about it to cope, but seemingly when it comes to violence and fear sanctioned by the government, teachers are expected to do nothing.”
Teachers Union President Carmen Ward said, “I am very much in support of having a better policy to deal with ICE here. The union did serve [School Board Attorney] Will Spillias with a correction that was needed in the board's policy, and we have not heard back from him on that.”
Over a dozen speakers talked about the ACPS ICE policy. None of the school board members responded.
ACPS spokesperson Jackie Johnson told the Gainesville Sun Wednesday morning that “no students have been interviewed or removed from school due to questions about their immigration status. She also said that only school administrators, not teachers, are to interact with ICE agents if they enter a school.”
GnvInfo attempted to contact Carmen Ward to ask what part of the school board’s policy on ICE needed to be corrected, but she hasn’t yet returned a response.
School board meetings are conducted on the first and third Thursdays of every month.
