The Teachers Union and its allies organized a rally on Saturday calling on the school district to fight more aggressively for immigrant families, including demanding that the federal government all return to students detained and expelled in Los Angeles.
School district officials – in a declaration and during the rally – minimized the conflict tone of the union and declared that they were united, as well as various constituent groups, to support immigrant families.
The Saturday rally took place outside the headquarters of the school district and included a march in the city center. He attracted around 500 noisy participants, many of whom carrying bright red shirts associated with united teachers in Los Angeles, who represent around 38,000 teachers, advisers, social workers, nurses and librarians.
“Education and not deportation,” they sang.
And: “Say it strong! Tell it clear! Immigrants are welcome here!”
The rally speakers included the rise in Vanessa Guerrero, who frequented the Miguel Contreras learning complex nearby. She spoke of a classmate who was seized and expelled.
“She was going to be senior this year,” said Vanessa. “She is known for coming to school every day, working hard, and she was a student with distinction. She contributed to the school community. And was a great person. ”
Her classmate and the girl’s mother were seized when they attended an immigration appointment, said Vanessa and others.
“Honestly, everyone is terrified,” said Vanessa.
The union called for a directly conflictual approach with the Trump administration – including participation in disputes to protect the rights of immigrants. The school system is not currently involved in disputes with the Trump administration, officials said, although the district chiefs have strongly criticized its actions.
Specific union requests include the establishment of a two -block perimeter around schools where immigration agents are not authorized.
It is not clear that district officials or staff would have jurisdiction beyond the school land.
Kindergarten teacher Esther Calderon joins hundreds of other educators in a Saturday rally calling for better protections and support for immigrant students and families.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The union also called for an “official campaign” that would work with families to update emergency cards and add additional adults to the family’s contact list, in case, for example, a student’s parents are detained.
SURINT SCHOOLS. Alberto Carvalho said that awareness was underway.
The union also requests that advisers be paid to return to work before the first day of school to ensure that families affected or potentially affected by the application of immigration are ready and prepared to return to school.
It is not clear how many students or members of the students’ family have been placed in police custody or deportees. The school district does not collect information on immigration status. Some cases have become a high and largely reported profile. In other cases, however, district policy and privacy protection limit what the school system reveals.
Union leaders said they also wanted the district to provide food and personal care items “to undocumented families who take shelter in place”, as well as to offer a virtual learning option to students “who are afraid of frequenting school in person due to immigration raids”.
And they called on the district to develop a “path” for students who were expelled to obtain their Lausd diplomas by the virtual completion of all the required high school units, and be a “leader” in the supply of legal support to all those affected by immigration raids – including school staff who get up to defend immigrants.
The Superintendent’s office had no immediate response to specific requests, but the chairman of the School Schmerelson School Board said the district would consider all measures to protect and support families.
Schmelson attended the Saturday rally as a spectator.
“Some of these ideas seem very feasible,” said Schmerelson. “The Superintendent works on safe passages,” he said, referring to the concept of a security perimeter.
In their songs, the members of the union promised to close the school system if they did not respond to their requests – even if their hostility was more clearly directed to the federal government.
“This violence affects us all,” said UTLA president Cecily Myart-Cruz. “The immigrant students are black, they are brown and they are Asian. And the trauma inflicted on these communities has an impact on each of them. When a student is torn from his family or lives in fear, their classmates also feel him. ”
She added: “The mental well-being of the whole class is at stake. This is why we demand that Lausd join the educators to publicly call our local and state leaders for the immediate return of all the students who were expelled or detained so that they can resume their studies.”
In a statement in response to the union rally, the school system highlighted the shared objectives.
“It is clear that Los Angeles Unified and our work partners are united in our deep commitment to protect each student, including our immigrant children,” the statement said. “Together, we will continue to take all the necessary measures to ensure that all Los Angeles children are safe, supported and educated – rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.”
At his traditional rear -back address – the courses begin on August 13 – Carvalho praised two directors who, with their staff, diverted immigration agents in two primary school campuses.
The agents – who stopped in schools on the same morning in April – said they were making social protection checks on students in particular, but had not provided any documentation to support this assertion.
The directors refused them.
“You have become shields, protecting the innocent life of 7, 8, 10 years of fear of never knowing it,” said Carvalho in his remarks. “Yes, you have followed the protocol, but more importantly, you have followed your conscience. Because of your conviction, … An unimaginable day has not become an unthinkable tragedy.”
School district officials have presented a list of measures taken to protect students and families and characterize campuses as a safe environment from which federal immigration agents will be excluded to the extent of the law.
The union is involved in contractual negotiations with Los Angeles Unified, the country’s second largest school system. It is a standard practice for the union to rally the members around its contract requests and to put pressure on the school system at this stage of negotiations, but the rally on Saturday was almost entirely focused on supporting people affected by immigration swings targeting the Los Angeles region under the Trump administration.