After school resumed for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) last Thursday, Board Member Kelly Gonez visited two schools in the City of San Fernando the following day to visit their preschool and special education programs.
Gonez’s first stop was at O’Melveny Elementary School before heading to San Fernando Early Education Center. While at O’Melveny Elementary, she was given a short tour by Principal Henry Vidrio.
He first showed Gonez their preschool area, both their classroom and play area, before they visited students in the special education program – children with mental disabilities who required wheelchairs to move around – during their lesson.
During the tour, Vidrio conveyed some of his concerns that parents wouldn’t bring their children on the first day of school due to fear of the ongoing federal immigration raids, especially children in the special education program. Fortunately, though, he said that most of the students showed up for class, chalking it up to the high degree of trust that parents have in the school.
“To me, that’s the most important thing, that they [parents and students] feel safe,” Vidrio said. “By parents bringing their child, it’s … confirmation that we’re good.”
Gonez praised the school and its staff for not only making O’Melveny Elementary a “high-quality learning environment,” but also for building that trust with families to feel that their children will be safe should an immigration raid come to the area.
She said she understands that since the raids began in June, there’s been a lot of fear within the LA community, which has been heightened in the Northeast San Fernando Valley following an increase in activity by immigration authorities. On Aug. 11, just a few days before the start of the current school year, a student was handcuffed by United States Border Patrol agents outside Arleta High School, but was released.
“It’s every family’s worst nightmare that this could happen to their children,” Gonez said. “I think we [LAUSD] knew that we need to do more, … and so I think we knew that we needed to show families that not only do we have the training and protocols in place, not only do we stand with our immigrants, but we’re actually taking action to make sure that that’s clear.”
On the first day, Gonez said that the district deployed hundreds of central and regional staff to school sites to provide support, used the LA School Police Department (LASPD) to patrol school campuses and worked with community-based organizations to be their eyes and ears within each neighborhood that could alert the district if immigration authorities appeared.
On the latter point, Gonez shared that it’s not just community groups, but also municipal partners, like local city council staff members, that can alert the district. Additionally, members from the United Teachers LA (UTLA) union will also monitor school perimeters. Although it’s only a volunteer effort, Gonez said it’s an extra layer of protection for LAUSD campuses.
If Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were to appear at a school and demand entry, Gonez said that staff have been trained not to cooperate with them and to refuse to let them inside. Schools are also distributing family preparedness packages to students, both in English and Spanish, that contain Know Your Rights information along with other documents.
For families who are still hesitant to send their children to school and are instead keeping them home, Gonez said that LAUSD does offer virtual learning, called Virtual Academy, which she added has seen an uptick in enrollment.
“As a parent myself, I understand that for some families, nothing will make them come out of their homes and going to school [will never] feel safe enough,” Gonez said. “That is absolutely valid, and that’s why we offer the remote learning option. But I think the onus is on us as a district to do everything possible to make sure that in-person learning feels safe and accessible for our families.
“We know from the experience with COVID that remote learning definitely has drawbacks,” she continued, “and we want our families to be able to choose to send their kids to school in person because that’s where food is available, where support and mental health services are available, as well as learning and academics. That’s why we have this extensive plan and preparation that we’ve been doing, because it’s on us to make sure that it’s safe for families to choose.”
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