After a 15-year-old boy with disabilities was detained outside a local high school by federal agents this week in a case of mistaken identity, education leaders fear many families will keep their children away out of fear of immigration raids.
That incident unfolded around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, just days before more than half a million LAUSD students return to classrooms. According to Los Angeles Unified School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, the student — who attends San Fernando High School — had gone to Arleta High with his grandmother to accompany a relative registering for classes.
The frightened boy was removed from the car and placed in handcuffs, though after school staff and the Los Angeles Police Department intervened, he was released.
“The release will not release him from what he experienced,” Carvalho said during a news conference. “The trauma will linger. It will not cease. It is unacceptable, not only in our community, but anywhere in America.”
In a statement released Tuesday, officials with the Department of Homeland Security said that they were in the area to detain a Salvadoran national with ties to the violent MS-13 gang and that “allegations that border patrol targeted Arleta High School are false.”
Education leaders from several Southern California school districts convened this afternoon to reassure outraged parents that their children are safe in school.
“No child can learn if they’re living in fear,” Estefany Castaneda, board president of Centinela Valley Union High School District, said. “Our schools must be safe havens.
Doris Martines, a parent of a child in an LAUSD school, told KTLA that she considered what happened to the 15-year-old boy to be a shameful act by federal officials.
Another parent, identified only as Yvonne, echoed the sentiment and said the alleged mistaken identity was upsetting.
“I was very upset because our kids shouldn’t have to be going through this and being scared of coming to school,” she explained.
District officials attending Tuesday’s event said that they intend to fight to keep federal agents away from Southern California school campuses and students, while LAUSD officials stated that when classes begin Thursday, school police, staff and volunteers will create a safe zone around many campuses.
During Tuesday’s event, at least one state lawmaker, Al Muratsuchi, also vowed to protect students.
“The California Safe Havens School Act [is] to keep ICE out of our schools,” he said. “All students, regardless of immigration status, have a right to a public education.”
For the coming fall semester, LAUSD has made it clear that they are offering online classes for any students who are afraid to return to campus.
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