Recent ICE audits across the Bay Area has struck fear among many residents leading to San Jose’s Alum Rock School District to call emergency meetings to come up with protocols in case parents of their students are deported while in class.
During the meeting the superintendent said she wasn’t going to wait to react to the recent ICE actions in the community, instead, she prefers coming up with a game plan for the worst-case scenario.
The district has begun their protocols by sending out a bilingual robot call reminding all parents to update their emergency contact information at their child’s school.
“In case you are not able to pick up your child after school, we need to have an authorized adult listed in the emergency card to pick up your child,” the call said.
According to the district’s superintendent, Dr. Hilaria Bauer, her district has lost 600 students in the last nine months, many coming from families who left for fear of deportation.
“Sometimes they don’t want to go to school. Don’t want to go shopping. They don’t want to go anywhere,” said an Alum Rock parent leader, Bertha Razo.
The district fears that some undocumented parents pulled their children out of school and have gone into hiding for fear of deportation. Some of the parents also told immigrant rights groups they wouldn’t be showing up to work for a while either.
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During the meeting, the district's committee was able to put together protocols for how a school will respond in case immigration agents show up on campus, in case students are left parent-less.
