While many parents look forward to the start of the new school year, thankful for the return of predictable schedules and daily routines, for others it’s accompanied by constant worry and the stress of looking over their shoulders.
“Our children obviously need to go to school, but immigration agents know that, and we know they are taking advantage of that and showing up near our schools or at shopping centers, because they know that these are places where people must go out of necessity,” said one Pacoima mother who spoke with the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol. She asked to remain anonymous.
She has a son and a daughter who attend Vaughn Mainland and G3 Academy charter elementary schools in Pacoima, where she has joined with several other parents who created an informal “comadre” network. Their goal is to keep one another and school officials informed of possible ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) sightings, and to pick up each other’s kids from school to allow undocumented parents from their school community to remain home, she explained.
“I can feel the fear all around us,” she said. “Sadly, sometimes even the students are fearful, too.”
Fidel Ramirez, CEO of Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, said they do everything they can to remain in regular communication with the families at their charter schools in Pacoima and San Fernando, to help them stay informed and feel safe bringing their children to school every day.
“A lot of what LAUSD is doing, we have done also,” said Ramirez. That has included presenting “Know Your Rights” workshops and disseminating the related wallet-sized red cards to school staff, kids and families.
In addition, they have a strong community network of staff and parents, including the comadres, communicating with families in both English and Spanish to share suspected ICE sightings and other information; and maintain partnerships with local representatives, including California Congresswoman Luz Rivas and Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez. They have also expanded Vaughn’s mental health team from eight to 20 members to support students and school staff.
“The ICE raids are a real thing,” stressed Ramirez. “It’s very tangible to our community because the ICE raids in LA have been very heavy in the northeast San Fernando Valley. … That’s very concerning and worrisome to us, for obvious reasons. And they’re not going to go away anytime soon. So we [want] to help prepare not only our students – elementary, middle and high school kids – but also our most vulnerable parents, most of whom are immigrants to the United States.”
Although many of their school families have not been directly affected by the ICE activity, Ramirez said many know of a tia or tio, a cousin or neighbor who has been targeted or deported.
“That weighs heavily on our families,” he said. “We also see it every day on the evening news. So the only thing we can do as a school community is continue informing our parents and our students that they do have rights – whether they’re documented or not, they still have rights.”
Since students returned to class at Vaughn schools – which resumed on Aug. 4 – there have been no ICE sightings to date, said Ramirez. In addition, student attendance has been robust so far, he noted, at about 95%, signaling a level of trust between the parents and the school community.
But despite that trust, real fears linger.
“My eight-year-old daughter was asking me, ‘Mommy, what if they come to our school? What will happen?’” recounted the mom, whose daughter is a third grader at G3 Academy in Pacoima. Although they have not had any close relatives or friends directly impacted by immigration enforcement activity, her children were with her last year when they witnessed a woman who was selling tamales outside of Lowe’s in Pacoima being grabbed by U.S. Border Patrol agents.
Her son, who is autistic, was scared and confused, and repeatedly asked what was happening. She admitted that she struggles with how to respond to their questions, and usually replies with, “‘When you’re at school, you’re in a safe place,’ because that’s how it should be,” she said.
Another Vaughn mother, a school volunteer and fellow comadre, shared a similar comment.
“It is sad that, even though this should be a protected area, a sanctuary, we’re still afraid,” she said.