Despite the Knox County School Board voting to ask the Tennessee General Assembly to reject efforts to ask schools to enforce immigration law/ask for proof of legal status, the district’s Superintendent indicates he’s ICE-friendly.
With the ongoing push for immigration enforcement, some are wondering whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be allowed come into Knox County Schools.
KCS Superintendent Dr. Jon Rysewyk stated that the schools would have the same protocols with ICE as with any other law enforcement agency, saying, “We will follow the law.” He also specified that there had not been a situation where ICE had asked to enter a KCS classroom.
A KCS spokesperson added weasel words:
“KCS takes the safety and security of our school campuses seriously. We do not give any entity access to students or educational records without legal authorization. In accordance with state and federal law, we do not maintain records on the immigration status of students,” a KCS spokesperson said. “As always, we will follow the law and we will verify any documents necessitating access to school campuses through the Knox County Law Department. Our priority is and always will remain the safety of our students.”
Let’s be 100% clear: Allowing ICE on school campuses threatens the safety of students, teachers, and school communities. Anything short of a refusal to allow ICE to come on to school property is the same thing as saying you are OK with ICE and with the disruption and threat to safety they pose.
Educators who wish to put students first will reject the tactics of ICE, period. Those, like the Knox County Director of Schools, who suggest cooperation with a masked, paramilitary group that demonstrates zero accountability are, in fact, a part of the problem.
Dr. Rysewyk, your policy of appeasement is noted, and students in your care are less safe because of it.
If some Tennessee lawmakers get their way, Tennessee schools could be on the frontlines of the Trump Administrations aggressive and inhumane immigration crackdown.
Earlier this year, the Tennessee Senate passed SB836, a bill that would allow public schools to deny undocumented children access to public K-12 education. This legislation directly challenges the landmark 1982 Supreme Court decision Plyler v Doe, which held that all children in the United States are entitled to a free public education, regardless of immigration and citizenship status.
The companion bill, HB793, stalled in the House, but it is expected to return for consideration in January.
One provision in the bill would require all public schools to collect the immigration and citizenship status of every child who enrolls, regardless of whether the district intends to exclude undocumented children.
Then there is Tennessee, where odious legislation that would have given public schools the right to turn away undocumented students, or charge them tuition, collapsed this week due to widespread opposition. A broad coalition of groups, sixty five strong, including the Tennessee Chapter of NAACP, Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) — one of my favorite grassroots organizing groups—and an array of immigrant rights organizations helped bring this thing down.
Local school officials played a key role too. The Hamilton County School Board, representing the largest school system in the home district of Bo Watson, the sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, voted unanimously to condemn the legislation last week, and every one of the district’s 79 school principals came out in opposition.
In a statement released to the media, the group explained their opposition to the measure that would allow public schools and charter schools to refused to educate the children of immigrants unless they can prove their legal status.
Rev. Monica Mowdy, United Methodist minister and former educator, said:
“As a Christian pastor and former teacher, I believe the words of Jesus when He tells us to care for the vulnerable and the children in our communities. I’m ashamed that Senator Bailey’s vote yesterday was in direct violation of our call as Christians. He refused to even hear the concerns of a constituent and pastor he’s represented for over 20 years.”
The group expressed hope that the vote will go differently in the House:
“It’s my hope and prayer that things go quite differently in the House,” said Rev. Mowdy. “We are called, above all, to love our neighbor and protect the vulnerable. This bill fails that test.”
Rev. Laura Becker, pastor of Northminster Presbyterian Church, refers to the effect of the bill as “harmful discrimination.”
“Not only am I a parent, a pastor, and a Tennessean, I’m a constituent of Bo Watson – the Senate sponsor of SB 0836 that allows school districts to refuse public school education to students based on their immigration status. I believe that every child is made in the image of God, and this kind of harmful discrimination against beloved children of God is offensive to me as a parent and as a pastor.”
