By Lyle Weems, Staff Writer
RUSD fails to protect its students in the recent RUSD policy change that prohibits any attempt of staff to impede ICE actions on campuses.
The recent mass walkouts of high school students across Riverside in response to the presence of ICE in the city and around schools, led to a board meeting covering policy changes to occur in RUSD’s handbook section 1445. A clause has been added to the Policy 5145.13: Response to Immigration Enforcement stating that while federal agents are not allowed on campus, staff can take no action to prevent their work and aggression should they choose to enter. This forbids, under law, any attempt staff may make to protect their students from ICE workers.
The idea behind this policy addition was to ensure staff safety, it undoes the notion and trust that school workers will protect the students to the best of their ability, and brings legal threat to those individuals who would stand against ICE for their students. It is common knowledge that ICE agents sit above the law and will face no retribution should they enter a campus without a valid judicial warrant. Thus this board addition moves to hinder student protection on campuses under state guidance. It is a submission to national governmental immigration pressures.
California law dictates that the territory be a sanctuary state. In this notion, the state is attempting to limit local law enforcement from helping ICE agents in their deportation activity. The focus of the police should maintain the benefit of the community, not an outside oppressive force. However, Riverside finds itself in a tug-of-war position as County Sheriff, Chad Bianco, has publicly endorsed ICE activity to lessen the burden on jails, and finds that the title sanctuary state is ultimately harmful as it forces ICE into California communities. The Riverside population is under clear threat with a disloyal and disingenuous police force. The very force bound to protecting its citizens is failing to act.
[Insert CA Sanctuary State Photo: ICE protestors in California hold up a banner calling for protection of all the state’s citizens under the Values Act (Photo by CA Immigrant Policy Center)]
The actions of ICE are clearly unconstitutional, as is the forcing of these federal orders, and conformity to unethical ruling should not be allowed to prevail. It will seep into the foundational design of education and freedom this nation was built upon. The presence of ICE creates fear and bias that will become abundantly clear in the beliefs of the future generations, and which is a mixture seen throughout history to cause only suffering and the worst atrocities. Beyond that, in California, schools, along with hospitals, libraries, and courthouses are deemed safe zones, where ICE activity is strictly prohibited. To claim publicly that ICE will face little to no resistance should they attempt to breach a campus is basically a green flag to go for an organization that already finds itself above the law. Ultimately, this addition to policy can only harm its students, and prove that the federal administration’s oppression is succeeding at the most fundamental level in America.