I spent more than 30 years in the classroom as an elementary school teacher – I know that if kids don’t feel safe at school, they are not going to learn, and nothing else matters. That’s why the reports about ICE in Minnesota and around the country are so harrowing.
In Minnesota, school districts like Minneapolis and St. Paul have been forced to switch to remote learning, not because of a pandemic, but because families are too terrified to step outside. In Seattle, schools sheltered in place last week. Attendance is plummeting as parents are being detained outside of schools and bus stops in front of their children.
This is a new, visceral trauma. Children are greeted at their school entrance not by smiles, but by masked, armed agents in tactical gear, surveilling a sacred place where our students play and learn.
There is a clear disparity in how our society invests in "safety." While 70% of new teachers earn less than $50,000 in their first year, new ICE recruits are offered $50,000 signing bonuses and up to $60,000 in student loan forgiveness. And while police officers typically undergo 12–24 weeks of academy training, these ICE agents are being sent into our communities with as little as 8 weeks of preparation, if that.
Schools are meant to be a safe haven. Instead, teachers and school staff are once again expected to shoulder the crushing burden of serving as first responders to a humanitarian crisis unfolding right in front of them.
Teachers Unify is a grassroots movement of educators across America whose mission is to empower its constituents and supporters to demand that communities are safe from gun violence.
