In America, and in Washington particularly, we value education as a human right. We value schools as safe places of learning and growth, and we value our teachers for creating those opportunities.
When schools report their students to ICE, these schools are systematically preventing students who are undocumented from receiving an education, stripping kids of their right to learn, and forcing teachers to
break their students’ trust.
Schools should never be responsible for jeopardizing their students’ future. In fact, we expect the opposite: schools should be providing every opportunity for each and every student to reach their full potential.
When schools imperil students and families’ livelihoods, kids will stop going to school.
In the Supreme Court ruling Plyer v. Doe in 1982, we guarantee the right of students to receive a public education regardless of their immigration status. Denying children access to education, by reporting them to ICE, would run counter to our rule of law.
Instead of making kids scared of receiving an education, we should be ensuring that schools are protecting our children, and that necessarily means never reporting students to ICE.
