It’s been a remarkable three weeks in South Lake Tahoe. On January 27, Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) Superintendent Todd Cutler shared a letter reiterating state and federal law that all students, regardless of immigration status, have a right to a free public education. Dr. Cutler said, “Our efforts will be to protect the rights of all students and keep them safe while under our care. All of our families are welcome at our schools!” Dr. Cutler’s letter was prompted by the Trump Administration removing longstanding policies protecting schools and churches from immigration enforcement. This has generated significant fear in immigrant communities in South Lake Tahoe, and across the country, with concern that parents will keep children at home, denying them their legal right to learn.
The response to Dr. Cutler’s letter was largely supportive, including comments like this from Xristian Simental, “Your proactive efforts to foster a safe and supportive environment for our children provide much needed comfort to families who might be feeling anxious.” Jennifer Marshall wrote “I feel for so many kids at school – I know a lot of them are scared, and for nothing they themselves did. We’re all people – let’s be kind and compassionate.”
But a vocal and mean-spirited few turned their ire on the messenger. Some tagged comments with “FAFO (#@$ around and find out),” suggesting Dr. Cutler would pay the price for stating that students are entitled to attend school safely without fear of being reported, interviewed or taken, despite the Trump Administration’s threats to send ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) into schools. Parker Alexander, founder/owner of Tahoe Heartbeat, stepped into that discussion thread, with his now infamous and short-lived post saying, among other similar things, that “these illegally bred children will grow up with the influence of their ‘criminal’ parents…we have to cut the dragon’s head off at the head….the kids also have to go.”
The community backlash was immense, led by local mom Kelly Escobedo, who posted on her Facebook page, “As a mother of half-Mexican children, with immigrant family members, I refuse to stand by while someone dehumanizes them….this isn’t just offensive; it’s dangerous. It fuels the very racism and division so many fight against every day. But here’s the thing about hate—it collapses under the weight of its own ignorance. Real strength comes from inclusion, not exclusion.” Her post was liked 800 times, generated nearly 600 comments, and was shared nearly 1000 times. Within days, 20 businesses and organizations stopped carrying Tahoe Heartbeat products. Later that week, hundreds of people rallied in support of immigrant families and other vulnerable people in one of the largest, and certainly most diverse, protests in South Lake Tahoe in recent memory.
While this part of the story has been well covered, and Alexander has since apologized for “hurtful and thoughtless” words, less attention has been paid to his comment in the same post asking, “Since when is it the school’s obligation to make kids feel safe at school?…we don’t owe these children anything.”
The answer is since 1982, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (Plyler v. Doe) to protect the right of all children to a free public education, regardless of immigration status. This was based on the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution (14th Amendment), which states in part that “No State shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” The Court found that any resources which might be saved from excluding undocumented children from public schools were far outweighed by the harms imposed on the child and society at large from denying them an education (such as higher rates of poverty, unemployment, and social inequality), and further that children have little control over their immigration status.
In addition to the Supreme Court ruling, state and federal laws prohibit educational agencies from disclosing personally identifiable student information to law enforcement without the consent of a parent or guardian, a court order or lawful subpoena. The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), signed into law by President Ford in 1974, protects the privacy of student education records. In California, Assembly Bill 699, passed in 2017, instructs schools to not collect information about families’ immigration status unless required by law and to limit assistance with immigration enforcement at public schools. The California Values Act, passed in 2018, ensures that no state and local resources are used to assist federal immigration enforcement and that public schools (as well as health facilities, public libraries, and courthouses) are safe spaces for everyone.
The LTUSD Board will be voting tonight (February 13) on a resolution asserting the right of all students to a safe, welcoming education, in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling, and state and federal laws. The resolution restricts the sharing of student files and information that may be used to ascertain the legal status of students, and ensures adequate training and support for staff to deal with students who feel unsafe on a District school campus or are facing possible deportation.
The School Board should pass the resolution unanimously to further demonstrate South Lake Tahoe’s strong support for invaluable and vulnerable immigrant children and their families, because it is the right – and legally required – thing to do. Schools should be completely safe places for learning for ALL students, not places of fear and discrimination.
By John Friedrich
John Friedrich is a former member of the South Lake Tahoe City Council