It’s been really tense. It’s traumatic for our kids. It’s absolutely horrific, the things that they’re experiencing every day. We’ve got kids coming home from school and talking about it. It used to be that you would do a drill for a tornado or a fire. And now kids are doing drills on how to stay safe if ICE comes to their school.
The federal government is attacking our places of education and our schools. Public school is where we build up our next generations, and school ought to be a safe place. It ought to be an affirming place. It ought to be a place where our children are able to be themselves and be able to learn and grow. And now school is a scary place.
We’ve seen ICE agents near schools and even on school property in ways that are just terrifying for our kids. And they have demonstrated zero situational awareness. What one might hope one would see from a public safety or law enforcement approach would be one that recognizes where you are and how to move appropriately. And that is not happening.
There are lots of families where caregivers are afraid to drive their kids to school, for their kids to take the bus, or to walk their child to the bus stop. So our community has worked really hard. Neighbors have been giving each other rides to school and rides back home again and delivering groceries to families, those kinds of things. And so we’ve got kids experiencing just a complete disruption of their day-to-day life. And, as a caregiver, one thing I know is that kids need structure and stability. And they have been robbed of that. For some kids, being at school is the only place they’re able to play outside because it’s not safe for them to play outside at home.
With all of the activity and things going on, we’ve had to cancel recess at a lot of schools because there are too many chemical agents, sprayed by ICE, in the air for it to be safe for the kids to play outside. They’re using pepper balls and tear gas and…
Auteur: Christin Crabtree
