Students speak out on immigrant rights

Some school districts threatened harsh disciplinary action against truant students, and some turned the demonstration into learning opportunities.

The national boycott, known as “A Day Without Immigrants,” called for Latinos to stay away from their jobs on May 1 to demonstrate their economic power. That event, as well as walkouts in March and April, were organized to protest a House bill that would make having an undocumented status a felony, construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border, and penalize employers for hiring illegals.

In general, it appears that fewer students skipped school May 1, compared with the earlier, more haphazard walkouts. Districts across the nation urged students to stay in school, many mentioning the safety aspect, and advised students who wanted to participate in the demonstrations to do so after the end of the school day.

Nevertheless, the May 1 event did have an impact on schools with high proportions of Latino students. According to news reports from around the country, the absentee rate was about 27 percent in Los Angeles, 20 percent in San Diego, and nearly 50 percent in Passaic, N.J. Seventy percent of students were missing from Richmond High School in the Contra Costa, Calif., school district, and Glades Central High School in Belle Glade, Fla., had twice the number of normal absences.

The Los Angeles Unified School District issued a policy statement before May 1 saying any student absent without a valid excuse would be considered truant. Although students would not be suspended, consequences could include “counseling, parent conferences, detention, fines, Saturday school, and community service.”

Los Angeles school board member David Tokofsky said it’s more useful for students to spend the day talking about the issues — in class and at the dinner table with their families — than skipping school. “Students who have walked out [during the earlier demonstrations] have lost some credibility for doing so,” he says.

The Santa Ana Unified School District in Orange County, Calif., locked down its schools on May 1 and made an extensive effort to discourage a walkout.

As a result, the district had a normal absentee rate of 5 percent May 1, says district spokesperson Susan Brandt. “We had a very calm day.”

The Santa Ana school system, which has a Hispanic enrollment of 96 percent, told  students that they would be considered truant if they had an unexcused absence.

Parents were informed that students who participated in the walkout would have to make up the time they missed, parents would have to leave their jobs to pick up their children, and students could be banned from the prom or other end-of-the-year activities.

There were some student and employee absences in the Phoenix Union High School District, but there were far fewer than during the earlier walkouts, says board member Harry Garewal, who is also president of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and a past chair of NSBA’s National Caucus of Hispanic School Board Members.

During the past few weeks, the chamber sent its intergovernmental relations specialists to high schools to talk to student leaders in informal lunch­time discussions about the immigration issue — and “how it’s possible to affect the outcome if you understand the process,” Garewal says. “We wanted to harness the energy young people have now to help them understand the process.”

About 400 students from the district’s Carl Hayden Community High School had participated in a pro-immigrant march and rally at the state Capitol April 10, says Principal Steven Ybarra. Some skipped school to attend with their parents, but most of them — along with Ybarra — waited until the end of the school day.

“If you are going to march, do it smart,” Ybarra says he told the students. “I’ll be glad to march with you, but you need to know what the issues are.”

Enrollment in the Phoenix Union High School District is about 80 percent Hispanic. Garewal estimates about 30 to 40 percent of that group are undocumented, although schools do not keep records on that. Public schools are required by law to educate all students.

The district urged students to stay in school May 1 but took no retaliation against students who participated in the boycott, he says.

Garewal says the biggest concern for undocumented students is that, even if they are doing well in school, they might not be able to go to college or get a job after they graduate.

Many of the students rallying for immigrants’ rights are advocating for passage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. This bill would allow most students of immigrant parents who came to the United States before they were 16 to qualify for conditional permanent resident status if they receive a high school diploma or GED or are accepted to college.

NSBA supports the DREAM Act and, in particular, a provision that would allow undocumented youths to be considered state residents when applying for public colleges and universities.

This would reduce the costs of higher education and, thus, eliminate barriers for local school districts in recruiting and sustaining a diverse work force.  

Jesus Gonzalez, a senior at Bayshore High School in Bradenton, Fla., told the Bradenton Herald he helped organize a rally because a lot of students will not be able to go to college without the DREAM Act. “A lot of their parents are immigrants working for minimum wage,” he says. “They came to this country for better opportunities.”

The DREAM Act would help students like those who participate in the robotics program at Carl Hayden High School. The school’s robotics team got national attention when it won first place in a competition in Santa Barbara, Calif., two years ago, beating teams from prestigious universities, including MIT.

Two Hayden students who were undocumented weren’t allowed to board an airplane to fly to the competition because they lacked the required photo ID, such as a driver’s license or passport, Ybarra says. Teachers ended up driving the students to the event.