In Defense and Defiance Behind Immigrant Students

Three distinct school systems acting to support undocumented children in the schools

Contentious changes to immigration law and enforcement practices have rippled — some might say ripped — through public education, prompting almost universal concern about the security and sanctity of schools.

Politicians have politicked. Activists have acted. And professional groups such as the National Association of School Psychologists and the American School Counselor Association have issued guidelines about how best to cope.

Of course, public school leaders must do more than simply cope. Theirs is the responsibility to ensure a quality education for all students, legal immigrant or otherwise. Amid the controversy and chaos about whether undocumented immigrant students belong in public schools, school system leaders in communities across the country must decide whether to take a stand and how best that stand is expressed in action.

“There are not many times in the careers of school leaders when we get a chance to stand up for what we believe to be absolutely true about the power of public education,” says Stephen Joel, superintendent of Lincoln Public Schools in Lincoln, Neb. “When we say ‘public,’ we mean all children and all families have access to an education. No exceptions. There can be no exceptions.”

In 2006, Joel took such a public stand as then-superintendent of Nebraska’s Grand Island Public Schools. On the morning of Dec. 12, federal immigration officers conducted a surprise raid at the town’s meat packing plant. More than 1,000 Grand Island students had parents employed at the plant. Many of those parents would not be coming home that night, and Joel and school staff took quick action to make the district’s schools safe places where affected students could be cared for until each family situation was resolved.

The district’s actions — which included a highly publicized press conference led by Joel — garnered national attention and warnings to local leaders from federal officials not to overstep.

“We were going to do everything in our power for our kids,” says Joel, who moved from Grand Island to Lincoln in 2010. “If not us, then who? If you don’t stand up for your children and families in your cities for the right reasons, if you’re not willing to be vocally supportive without doing something illegal, then what’s the future?”

District Illustrations

Many of Joel’s peers are likely asking themselves that very question. The ongoing public debate over the fate of immigrant families in this country is more heated than ever, forcing school districts and leaders coast to coast, in border towns and places far from them, to act in support and defense of students and the principles of fairness and equality.

There is settled U.S. law governing the status and rights of immigrant and refugee children in terms of their education. In the U.S. Supreme Court case of Plyler v. Doe in 1982, a 5-4 majority ruled that undocumented children have a constitutional right to receive a free public K-12 education, providing them the means to become a “self-reliant and self-sufficient participant in society,” a vital element of democratic ideals and goals.

But high-minded legal rulings don’t necessarily resolve immediate crises, such as surprise immigration raids and students without immediate family or transportation to attend school. This is a continuing crisis with no end in sight. Here are three stories of how school leaders in geographically disparate districts have responded.

San Benito Consolidated Independent School District
San Benito, Texas
Enrollment: 10,590 students PreK-12

The particular challenges of educating immigrant students are well-known in this small district in the southernmost county in Texas, smack against the U.S.-Mexico border. Ninety-eight percent of the student population is Hispanic, and 89 percent qualify for the reduced-price school meals program.

“They are first-generation Americans, the children of immigrants, or even newer,” says Michael Vargas, president of San Benito’s school board. “They come to school. It might be their first week in America. Everything is very foreign.”

Vargas became something of a national spokesperson when, in the summer of 2018, school officials discovered that federal authorities had opened a migrant shelter within district boundaries to house families detained in immigration sweeps on the border. It wasn’t clear the privately contracted shelter was set up to provide detained children with an education. San Benito district leaders felt obliged to step in.

The school district dispatched 19 bilingual teachers, mobile classrooms and hundreds of computers to the shelter, attempting to make it more closely resemble an actual learning environment. The action aroused great attention, positive and aggressively negative. Politicians of all stripes and media descended on the area to tell the story, mostly approvingly, but, adds Vargas, “there was also some toxic talk in the community about how we were siphoning resources away from ‘our’ students.”

Vargas and others responded by doing high-profile interviews and contributing opinion pieces to explain this was not true, that the aid effort was temporary while state and federal officials sorted things out, including funding and a longer-term remedy. The district hired an outside communications firm to assist with strategy. San Benito’s administrators visited schools and public gathering places, such as church services and chamber of commerce meetings, to explain what was happening and why.

Tensions have eased, though the nearby shelter appears (as of late November) to be operating at full capacity, Vargas says. San Benito’s schools continue to help, but the Texas Education Agency announced during the summer that state funding could not be used to provide teachers and resources, throwing into question the role of states in educating minors who cross the border illegally.

“Even with the community outbursts, we were comfortable with what we were and are doing,” says Vargas, who works professionally as a recruiter and coach for persons seeking to run for political office. “We had the 1982 Plyler case. Our state education code, which ensures a public education for all, was a defense. But it was a moral issue as well, one that we made to key community members outside the district: businessmen, pastors. We got these folks involved. It lessened the blow and aroused support. We wanted to be proactive, really communicate, and it has worked.”

Roughly 230 miles to the north in the 50,000-student San Antonio Independent School District, Superintendent Pedro Martinez echoes Vargas’ points.

“Our role is determined by law. We are here to educate children. We’re not being political when we say that. It’s what the law demands.”

Nonetheless, in a district more than 90 percent Hispanic, Martinez, who is an immigrant himself and married to the daughter of immigrants, has worked overtly to assert that basic premise. District officials have collaborated with advocacy groups in training and with local police to create a bilingual handbook that outlines the legal rights of undocumented immigrants, what law enforcement officers can and cannot do and the undisputed sanctity of school campuses.

“I have a lot of respect for our local police,” Martinez says. “We’re on the same page. We all want to make sure we’re not violating any rights of any community members. The handbook is very explicit. We do not ask for immigration status. We do not do anything to make people feel uncomfortable. We simply want to educate children, all children.”

Portland Public Schools
Portland, Maine
Enrollment: 7,000 students K-12

Almost half of the student population in Portland, Maine, Public Schools is composed of minority groups. But unlike school districts farther south, Spanish-speaking students never have been the majority minority.

“When I started in the district in 1987, there were five language groups,” says Grace Valenzuela, the district’s communications director. Those were Khmer, Lao, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Dari. Families were largely refugees from Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. “There were about 150 students in all grade levels,” Valenzuela adds.

In the early 1990s, many of these students were replaced by immigrants from Eastern Europe, Russia and Ethiopia, then as conflicts occurred, from the Balkan region, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, parts of Africa and Central and South America.

A long history of incoming, ever-changing multilingual student demographics has helped Portland school leaders and staff adapt as needed, says Superintendent Xavier Botana. The district has an established infrastructure to support students and families built upon longstanding federal grants.

Like elsewhere, Portland Public Schools made multiple public declarations over the years that it was a safe zone for all students, Botana says. District leaders also reviewed existing resources, adding elements such as “Immigration 101” professional development courses for staff, and collaborated with local immigrant advocacy groups to host parent information workshops.

“We’ve done what we believe we can to give parents as much information as we have about what is actually happening and what they should and shouldn’t do,” says Botana, who became superintendent in 2016.

Tucked in the far northeastern reaches of the country, the immigration drama along the southern border with Mexico can seem far away, but Botana believes the uncertainty and apprehension are not dictated by distance.

“We’ve made an effort to educate our staff about the trauma associated with living in fear of immigration enforcement actions,” he says. “We do everything in our power to keep children safe, in school and learning. It’s what we are here to do.”

Oakley Union Elementary School District
Oakley, Calif.
Enrollment: 5,250 students K-8

In February 2017, the Oakley Union school board in Oakley, Calif., unanimously passed a resolution declaring itself a “safe zone” for all students, a move that district officials hoped would help quash fears on campus and in the surrounding community that changing immigration laws put some local immigrant students at risk.

“Our No. 1 charge as a district is to ensure all of our students are safe every day, and that is at the core of our beliefs in what we do,” Superintendent Greg Hetrick told the local news media. “If the students don’t feel safe, then they can’t engage in academics that we are trying to share with them.”

The declaration followed California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s urging that all districts in the state approve such safe haven resolutions. Scores have done so.

But Oakley Union, whose enrollment is more than 48 percent Hispanic, took additional actions. District staff produced a video message for students with Hetrick reiterating the district’s stance and staged an immigration policy forum for parents led by an immigration lawyer.

The town of Oakley (population 40,100) lies within the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area. The region is historically agricultural, surrounded by almond groves, vineyards and vegetable fields, but farming is less prevalent these days. The district currently reports no designated migrant students (children accompanying seasonal farmworkers). Hetrick, who has led Oakley schools since 2016, says he’s unaware of any real issues involving immigrant students in the district’s past.

But the current situation seems serious enough to take note — and take a stand. “This was something I brought to the board as a discussion item,” Hetrick says. “It was in response to what was taking place nationally. We have worked very hard to bring our families together and get them engaged in our schools. We had policies and practices in place that we follow. The safe haven resolution was just a restatement of what we currently do and what we are about.

“If families and students do not feel safe (at school), they will not come and will not participate,” he adds.

Creating a diverse learning community always has been a commitment, one built upon strong relationships, transparency and trust, Hetrick says. Though the resolution and subsequent actions were fully supported by Oakley’s board of education and staff, the superintendent says he got “blasted on social media” by some individuals and groups pushing a harder line on the treatment of non-citizens.

Asked repeatedly why the district could not have been more discreet in its actions, Hetrick says he routinely replies that the actions taken were not intended to be political or high profile, just necessary.

“My response is always ‘Why isn’t every school district doing the same?’ Whatever happens, we are going to continue to do the right thing and that means making sure all of our students are successful.”