{"id":146524,"date":"2026-02-06T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146524\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:06:07","slug":"parents-insist-ice-is-watching-schools-superintendent-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/146524\/","title":{"rendered":"Parents insist ICE is watching schools; superintendent says no"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Jacksonville parents group says at least 40 children are missing from Duval Schools\u2019 attendance rolls because of Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a> activity in the county.<\/p>\n

The parents are calling attention to what they say is a more significant problem than residents may realize.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a School Board meeting Tuesday, parent Kris Kiernan addressed the board during a public comment period, saying some parents are afraid to send their children to school because they fear being detained by ICE<\/a> and leaving their kids without a caretaker.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want our kids to go to school, take the fear away,\u201d Kiernan said.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the meeting, Vice Chair April Carney, whose district includes the Beaches and Mayport, said Kiernan\u2019s claim was untrue and was\u00a0\u201cscaring the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s inciting fear by saying that ICE is coming into our schools, and they are not,\u201d Carney said. Speakers should \u201cplease, please, please fact check\u201d before speaking, she said. \u201cWe want our students to know that when they walk in the building, they\u2019re in a safe space.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ICE action sparks tension in Jacksonville<\/a><\/p>\n

Carney then asked Superintendent Christopher Bernier to comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not had ICE agents reporting to our schools, removing students,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Bernier said the district has dealt with parents being \u201carrested outside of school,\u201d while children were at school.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bernier didn\u2019t specify how the district knew that a parent\u2019s absence was the result of an ICE incident. A district spokesperson didn\u2019t respond before this story\u2019s publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had to work to find children the appropriate care and individuals from their emergency contact plan,\u201d Bernier said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had to do that a couple of times this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiernan spoke with Jacksonville Today on Friday. She said she has personally witnessed ICE activity near schools.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s part of a network of moms who help get kids to school when their parents are worried about being detained. They\u2019re also helping to collect food and clothes for affected families.<\/p>\n

Volunteers say they have seen law enforcement agents wearing clothing labeled \u201cPOLICE\u201d step out of unmarked SUVs. They say they\u2019ve also noticed more officers from the Florida Highway Patrol and Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office near schools and bus stops. <\/p>\n

Kiernan says the number of missing students she cited on Tuesday is accurate \u2014 both because some detained parents have asked for their children to be deported together with them and because some children are not attending school because of ICE\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Jacksonville parents group says at least 40 children are missing from Duval Schools\u2019 attendance rolls because of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":{"0":"post-146524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}