As Yesenia Barron led a group of parents through a tour at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, the senior and CIC pathway ambassador was expecting to receive questions from parents about classes and extracurricular activities. Instead, she said, Spanish-speaking parents more frequently asked her: Will my child be safe at school?
Barron said this experience within the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) represents the current state of the world — immigrant students and parents are living in fear.
As a part of the Latino community, she finds it important to advocate for herself and others. It is what motivated her to join local youth social justice organization Californians for Justice (CFJ), and what brought her to the podium at LBUSD’s board meetings.
“Being here for my community is really important for me, especially because for the Latino community it’s difficult to get where we’re at, it’s difficult to seek higher education,” Barron told the Signal Tribune. “I’m here because I want to protect the community and speak up for them.”
LBUSD drafted and presented an updated immigration policy at its March 19 board meeting. Board Policy 5145.13 addresses the District’s response to immigration enforcement activities on LBUSD campuses and was adopted in 2018. The updated policy aimed to more clearly outline how the District responds to immigration enforcement as well as highlight the type of information the District collects regarding immigration status.
“I want to be really clear that there’s nothing that we collect right now related to enrollment, program, participation, nutrition, application, childcare and nothing requires us to know that information. We don’t seek it,” Deputy Superintendent Tiffany Brown said.
An updated draft is a start, but students highlight accessibility needs
Several students shared how while they recognized the District’s efforts like creating a webpage with immigration resources, they are concerned about accessibility.
Rylee Hildreth, a 10th grader at Poly High School, emphasized that most of the material the District sent out is digital, yet not all families have access to the internet or a computer at home.
“The District needs to implement more attainable ways for these resources and information to reach all students,” Hildreth said. “Students are the real experts in their own school experience, and we demand that the board listen to us, to not be overlooked like we have in the past.”
Other recommendations from CFJ student leaders include:
- Providing comprehensive staff training on what to do if they see ICE as well as overall protections from policing and discrimination for all students.
- Implementing an alert system that gives an immediate text or email to parents if ICE is spotted on school campuses.
- Connecting with teachers, associated student bodies and wellness centers directly to inform the student population of these resources through rallies, assemblies and mandatory videos.
- Connecting with students to get their input on the currently available resources and what resources may be lacking.
- Making digital resources available in print as well.
Community Partnership
Throughout these mobilization efforts of students showing up to the board meetings, CFJ has received guidance from Long Beach immigrant advocacy group, ÓRALE.
This partnership happened naturally, said CFJ organizer Megan Lane, after ÓRALE facilitated a Know Your Rights Workshop for CFJ members. She said students were activated by that conversation and felt the intersectionality between them being young Black women and the criminalization of undocumented students.
Fernando Acevedo, a community lawyer with ÓRALE, has helped facilitate these efforts by reviewing policy and identifying key recommendations. Acevedo also thanked the board for its attention to the previous feedback, and upon reviewing the updated policy, had some additional recommendations. He urged the board:
- Ensure clarity and communication with parents and guardians to make sure they understand that consent to any information request is voluntary.
- When presented with an administrative warrant, the District denies the request outright without any additional steps.
- Require — instead of using language like “encourage” — video recording for any interactions with immigration enforcement.
- Include a provision facilitating the sharing of any documentation of interactions with immigration enforcement with impacted district community members, so that they may use it as required, potentially for deportation proceedings or anything that may result from those interactions with immigration enforcement.
What’s Next
The District will incorporate community feedback into an updated draft to be presented at a later board meeting.
“There is some work to be done with reminding and affirming,” Board Member Juan Benitez said.
Lane said the District needs to be held accountable to these policies and more importantly, bring students in for collaboration.
“You don’t know what’s going on in schools without having students in the conversation, so it’s a great start, but let’s bring in students to get this moving,” Lane said.
Barron hopes the District continues expanding its efforts.
“[LBUSD] has so much power to really make a difference, and it’s not something they’re doing with the policies that they’ve made,” Barron said. “They’ve done their best, but I don’t think it’s necessarily the best they can do, especially when it comes to making sure ICE doesn’t come onto campus.”
