The Los Angeles School Police will establish a security perimeter around campus and school events, including graduations, to keep federal immigration agents of students, employees and families on Monday, school officials said Monday.
The ads of supt. Alberto Carvalho occurs in the midst of generalized immigration raids in Los Angeles, including one on Monday in an Home Depot adjacent to Huntington Park high school, after a weekend of isolated but intense center shocks between the police and the Protestants, some of which establish autonomous cars in firefighters and accumulate rocks and fires of fires.
The measure is among the most notable actions taken by the second largest school district in the country, whose leaders said at a press conference on Monday that they will deploy their own police force to protect students and their families so that they can enjoy in peace the many graduation ceremonies that will take place this week as the school year concludes on Tuesday.
“We are strongly on the right side of the law,” said Carvalho. “Each student of our community, each student throughout the country, has a constitutional right to a free public education of high quality, without threat. Each of our students, regardless of their immigration state, has the right to a free meal in our schools. Each of our children, without questions, has the right to advise, social support, mental support.”
President Trump reversed a Biden administration policy that greatly exempts schools and other potentially sensitive areas, such as immigration application churches. In recent days, federal agents have also not attacked local schools. But in April, federal agents were rejected by staff in two primary schools.
Carvalho did not rule out the potential of a confrontation that involved the school police if federal officers tried to enter a school or school event outside the campus, such as a graduation ceremony, without a court order.
“I think it would be an absurd condition,” said Carvalho. “But, again, we have seen absurd actions recently taken by this administration. We are prepared for everything,” said Carvalho, added that he is in consultation on the contingency plans with the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass.
“I have a professional and professional responsibility to protect our children, protect our workforce, ensure holiness, the protection of our buildings and their extension,” said Carvalho. “That means school buses, the transport of children to school and graduation ceremonies. Nothing should interfere with that, and I will put my work at stake to protect a 5 -year -old boy, an 11 -year -old boy, a 11th student or a soon graduate.”
But there are limits. The authorities recognized that they are not legally allowed to interfere if the officers arrive with a court order, which are relatively rare. All school staff, not only the school police, has received training on how to interact with immigration agents, especially to limit their access to the campus and children.
The defenders of Trump's objectives responded to public employees should help support immigration laws against those who are not legally authorized to live in the United States.
For the school system, the fury of immigration was calmed in a time of celebration: the graduation season. Federal actions caused a detailed response, already concerned with the leadership of the school district.
“While looking at the horizon from my office this morning, I saw gray clouds on Los Angeles,” Carvalho said as he opened his comments. “Those gray clouds could mean many things for many people. I interpreted them as clouds of injustice, clouds of fear, intimidation, clouds that seek to scare the best of us in dark corners.”
Around 100 high school graduations and end -of -year culminations were scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, and graduation events continued until June 16.
The Los Angeles School Police lack the labor to surround each place of campus and school events, but when the officials find out about the possible activity of application of immigration, the plan is to put a patrol in front of a campus and another in motion around the site.
In graduation ceremonies, outdoor lines to enter places must be minimized. And families can remain inside during the time that is necessary, the agents begin a raid outside or in the neighborhood.
When possible, a virtual option would be provided for families to see an online graduation ceremony.
Carvalho said: “I have talked to parents who have told me that their daughter would be the first in her family to graduate from high school, and they will not be there to witness it, because they are afraid that the graduation place will be attacked. What nation are we becoming?”
Carvalho said there is so far confirmation of six or seven families in the school district who have been affected by raids and arrests. In one case, a student was arrested with his father and transported from Los Angeles to Texas. The district has not identified the student or school due to privacy problems.
A fourth grade student attending Torrance Elementary, in a neighboring school district, and his 50 -year -old father was arrested on May 29 for the United States immigration and customs application, and will soon be deported, a federal official said.
The father and son entered the United States illegally in 2021, according to the Federal Government.
The Superintendent also noticed to talk about student strikes. He said that the right of students to protest would be respected, but asked families to urged their children to remain in the campus for security reasons.
Carvalho also advised families to update their contact and emergency information with their school. And families must also prepare support plans if caregivers stop.
The summer school begins on June 17 and extends until July 16. Carvalho said that more campus would open for classes to minimize home trips to school and more transported transport would be provided.
District leaders have often been circums such in their words about the Trump administration, critical, without a doubt, but careful. But there was little caution on Monday.
The member of the School Board, Nick Melvoin, demanded the elimination of the National Guard and compared Trump's response in Los Angeles with his delay in detaining the protesters who sought to avoid the peaceful transfer of Trump's power to the elected president Joe Biden on January 6, 2021.
The Member of the Board, Rivas, said there were raids in recent days in Boyle Heights, MacArthur Park, Lincoln Heights, Pico Union, Cypress Park, “just to name a few.”
“Our families are now forced to live with fear, looking over their shoulders on the way to school or the graduation of their children. This is simply incorrect. It is also very, very cruel,” Rivas said.
The member of the Tanya Ortiz Franklin Board: “It is not about keeping our community safe. It is a late belief about who belongs and who should be expelled, locked and quiet.”
The president of the School Board, Scott Schmerelson, looked for a broader perspective.
“This is the happiest moment for our children and their parents, and it is a very sad moment, but we have to remember that our children have also achieved a lot,” said Schmerelson. “They are graduating and are trying to maintain a positive attitude.”
