LAUSD Promises to Protect Students Amid Immigration Worries

According to the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, who gave an interview on Monday, the district is taking precautions to protect its pupils in light of the increased concerns regarding President Donald Trump’s hard position on immigration.

The Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, Alberto Carvalho, has stated that the district’s schools will refuse access to federal agents who claim to be conducting “wellness checks” on pupils unless they have the appropriate documents that cannot be rejected.

“What we require as evidence, justifiable evidence, to contact and access anyone in our schools is a judicial warrant signed by a judge with the name of the individual, whether they are a minor or not,” Carvalho stated. “The identity of the individual must be included within the warrant.” “Without a warrant, you are treated in the same manner as any other student in our schools.”

When investigators from the Department of Homeland Security Investigations visited two schools earlier this month to carry out what the department referred to as “wellness checks,” the district became the subject of widespread media coverage. In the end, they were not allowed to enter the locations of the universities.

As a result of the presence of federal agents, Carvalho observed that attendance at the two schools was affected. This was most likely due to the anxieties of families who may have members who were not in possession of proper documentation. Despite this, there has not been a decrease in student attendance across the entire district, and he attributes this accomplishment to the protective structure of the district.

He stated that “our board passed a number of resolutions affirming our values, declaring the legal protections from a civil but also a personal perspective, as well as federal law and constitutional law that protect students and families in our schools.” These resolutions were presented to the board in order to affirm our principles.

Alberto Carvalho, the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, discusses the incidents. The report from Mekahlo Medina
The superintendent stated that the school district protects its pupils by adhering to the United States Constitution, regardless of the students’ legal status.

According to what he said, “the equal protection clause of the Constitution declares that all students, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to a free public education in any school across the United States.” In the second place, there is a federal law known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which is a law that safeguards the privacy and confidentiality of students. This law is highly significant in the field of education. This indicates that we will not disclose any information about our students or their families to any independent third party. Thirdly, and this is the most significant one, in loco parentis, which basically means in the absence of parents, I, as a superintendent, a teacher, or a principal, need to act in a protective manner as if they were the parents of children. This is the most crucial of the three.

Carvalho reaffirmed the district’s commitment to educate its pupils and keeping the safeguarding of their well-being under serious consideration. The Los Angeles Unified School system (LAUSD) offers a secure environment for pupils, where they are able to concentrate on their education and make use of the resources that the system provides.

According to what he said, “Schools are places where they get inspiration, education, and they get nutrition.” It is not appropriate for our students or our personnel to feel threatened in the school environment.