College students helped form a decision into consideration by Evergreen Public Colleges’ board concerning the rights of undocumented college students and protocols for responding to immigration enforcement.
A Jan. 21 directive from the Division of Homeland Safety opened the door for immigration officers to detain individuals in beforehand protected locations, together with faculties. In response, Clark County college districts despatched letters residence to households and proceed to create insurance policies across the difficulty.
“Our students should not have to worry about the potential impacts of immigration enforcement, but instead, should be concentrating on learning in their classrooms,” Evergreen Public Colleges Interim Superintendent Christine Moloney stated at Tuesday’s board assembly. “Their voices affirm what we stand for as a district.”
Moloney stated she and board members visited scholar teams, together with Mountain View Excessive Faculty’s Latino Membership, to debate their issues concerning immigration, Evergreen’s insurance policies and the draft decision.
From these discussions, the board revised the decision and offered it at Tuesday’s workshop.
Jamila Singleton, Evergreen’s director of scholar fairness and household engagement, offered the board with an inventory of things college students wished to see within the decision, which affirms the rights of undocumented college students and descriptions protocols for responding to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
A type of gadgets is disciplinary motion for workers who disclose such private data as a scholar’s immigration standing. The board then added a paragraph stating, “We direct the superintendent to apply disciplinary proceedings where policies have been violated.”
The board added a piece within the decision about actively monitoring campuses for unauthorized people on college property.
“I will speak on behalf of the students and the group,” Singleton stated. “I think they’ll be really encouraged to know that their voice was incorporated.”
The board despatched the draft for authorized evaluate earlier than a vote on the decision March 10.
Board members deliberate to vote on the decision at their Feb. 11 assembly however delayed as a result of almost 20 college students, dad and mom and neighborhood members testified about it throughout public remark.
On Feb. 4, Moloney adopted the Limiting Immigration Enforcement in Colleges coverage, which correlates with the decision. The coverage states, “Evergreen Public Schools does not grant permission for any person engaging in, or intending to engage in, immigration enforcement, including surveillance, to access the non-public areas of school facilities, property, equipment, databases, or otherwise on school grounds or their immediate vicinity.”
Vancouver Public Colleges’ newly adopted Immigrant and Refugee College students, Households, and Employees coverage additionally follows that guideline and offers detailed definitions and knowledge on how workers ought to reply to immigration officers.
“Staff will immediately report receipt of any information request relating to immigration enforcement to the principal who shall document the request and refer the request to the superintendent and legal counsel,” the coverage states.