After last week’s 11th-hour pullback of a planned “surge” of federal immigration agents in San Francisco, fear and uncertainty persist in immigrant communities. Teachers and principals at the San Francisco Unified School District in particular say they need more robust guidelines from district leadership to protect immigrant families and students in public schools.
The district’s current plans in the event of aggressive immigration enforcement do not address safe passage zones for students and families, training for if immigration agents attempt to force their way into school sites and an option for virtual classes. School staff want these, among other possible changes.
Principals said they brought up the immigration scenario during training before the start of the school year.
The school district’s response then and after has focused on what to do if federal immigration agents come to a school — namely, send the agents to 555 Franklin St., the district’s headquarters.
But principals say they want more.
“I’m a little less worried about ICE coming onto my campus and more worried about when my students are going to and from school,” said Amy Abrero, the principal of John O’Connell High School in the Mission. “Especially working with high school-aged kids, because they do a lot of independent traveling between school and other places.”
Another high school principal agreed. She described last week’s immigration scare as akin to living a Black Mirror episode.
“I think the school district is trying to coordinate some sort of response with the city, but it doesn’t feel very specific,” the principal said.
The school district did not immediately respond to questions. A district spokesperson pointed to guidelines on its website that assure parents school staff do not share immigration information with agents and encourage parents to authorize caregivers to pick them up in case of an emergency.
The policies are heavy on guidance for what to do if agents come to a school, but sparse on what to do if agents come near schools outside schoolhouse hours. The district advises parents to contact the San Francisco Rapid Response phone line at 415-200-1548.
Principals told district staff during an emergency all-hands Zoom meeting last Wednesday that they want more protection outside of school hours, including coordinating with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on student transportation.
Many are modeling their asks on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s response after the county experienced a surge of immigration enforcement this summer, with thousands of arrests of undocumented immigrants, including a mother from a school drop-off lane and a student who was off school premises walking his dog. An agent also drew a gun on a student in front of a high school.
“I think we need to do something like they did in Los Angeles,” said Anna Klafter, the principal at Independence High School and president of the United Administrators of San Francisco.
The Los Angeles school district responded immediately after arrests started there.
LAUSD offers a family preparedness package in both English and Spanish, informing families what to do if approached by immigration agents. The district also encouraged families to contact schools for transportation and busing services, or for virtual classes.
The district established “safe passage zones” in coordination with campus officers and community groups to guarantee safe traveling for students. Know-your-rights information, legal and mental health services, and a dedicated family hotline are available on the district’s website.
San Francisco faces a very different threat, however. The bulk of the immigration arrests here have been at downtown courthouses where asylum-seekers and others go for administrative hearings. They are routinely arrested in courthouse halls.
Still, Los Angeles’ tack is the kind of approach Klafter and others would like to see.
“I think we need to be a little more proactive rather than reactive … We need to work with community groups and talk about how to create some safe zones around our schools, especially schools with high immigrant, Black and Brown student populations,” she added.
Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco, said the district has taken a good first step on what to do if immigration agents come to a school. Now, she wants the district to take the next steps: These include training the school staff on what to do if ICE agents try to force their way into schools, and the creation of safe zones for students.
“We’ve seen what the agents are doing in Chicago and L.A., and the responses from those districts have been very assertive,” said Curiel. “In the lack of leadership and direction, school sites are left to make those decisions and have those conversations themselves.”
The Trump administration this week relieved nearly half the regional leaders at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and replaced them with Customs and Border Protection personnel. The move could portend more aggressive enforcement: Customs and Border Protection was reportedly picked to lead a ramp-up in arrests.
In the meantime, parents are sometimes taking it upon themselves to provide guidance. At Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8 in the Mission, a member of the parents and teachers association said she had offered to accompany the kids of an undocumented mother to school, after the mother said she was afraid to walk them to the school bus.
“I really do feel scared. I’m hesitant to leave my house because I don’t know if something will happen just around my house, and I’ll be at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the mother in Spanish. “I just think about my children. I wouldn’t want them to be alone, feel abandoned or have the government take possession of them.”