NORTHAMPTON — The School Committee voted unanimously Tuesday to bar Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from all six Northampton Public Schools, declaring them “safe zones” amid what members called real fear in the district’s immigrant community.
The School Committee unanimously approved a resolution, titled “Ensuring Northampton Public Schools as Safe Zones Free from Immigration Enforcement,” that members intend to adopt as a formal policy later this month. The policy would prohibit immigration enforcement in all district schools, buses and school-sponsored events, except where explicitly required by law.
The resolution also prohibits district employees from granting ICE agents access to school property, sharing student information or records, or assisting in locating or identifying any student or family member unless he or she is compelled to by a signed judicial warrant.
“Although as far as we know we don’t have ICE entering our schools, they are in our community and have impacted local families and the fear is real in our immigrant community,” said School Committee member Amy Martyn. “Everything we can do to both demonstrate our commitment and make it real through protocols, training and support shows our whole community who we are.”
The resolution, which bans the district’s collection of immigration records from students or their families and “fully prohibits disclosure” of information for immigration enforcement purposes, will go before the Rules and Policy Subcommittee so that it can be codified into the district’s policies and procedure. It also mandates training for all school staff and administration on how to handle ICE.
School Committee members were largely in support of the policy, with some stressing the need for additional school security and concrete measures to protect against a more aggressive ICE intervention in the schools.
“I am really concerned that we don’t have a lot of office monitoring, we don’t have people looking at doors all the time, and then we don’t have staffing to be aware of who’s coming and who’s going. We don’t necessarily have the technology to do so either,” said member Michael Stein. “I really do want us to think about what we might actually need in order to have people monitoring who’s coming and going from our buildings at all times because this is a core element of this issue.”
Member Renika Montgomery-Tamakloe echoed Stein’s remarks, adding that she believed training for staff to ensure that policies blocking ICE from entry into schools should be fortified by ensuring staff has “backup.”
“We all have seen how aggressive ICE can be, and even though people have training and they have good intentions, one person may feel very isolated and alone, and forced to give up information just because of how aggressive they are,” Montgomery-Tamakloe said. “I want us to keep that in mind and have redundancies in place so that it’s not just one person standing alone, it’s at least a group of two.”
The committee’s resolution follows additional municipal actions to safeguard against an ICE raid. The City Council in May unanimously approved a resolution to hold federal immigration enforcement accountable for violating the law. The Council’s resolution prompted broad support from community members who expressed a hope that more can be done to protect immigrant communities.
The School Committee’s resolution also garnered similar public support, with residents backing the idea during the comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting. No one spoke against the measure.
Susan Sullivan, an English language learners (ELL) teacher at Northampton High School, said she hoped that all of the district’s school buildings, which comprise different layouts and structural elements, receive uniquely tailored policies and procedures.
“As an ELL teacher of several immigrant students, I really want to see all schools in [the district] come up with unique plans around possible ICE presence,” Sullivan said. “In addition, I want to ensure Northampton Public Schools is not only training all of its main office staff, but also making sure that any substitute or fill-in main office staff are trained as well.”
Another supporter, Northampton High School teacher Ian Petty said the resolution came about after teachers reported a growing fear of ICE among their students.
“[Students are] looking to teachers for support. Many educators offer that support in amazing ways, but we couldn’t necessarily point to something we were doing collectively to support our students,” he said. “Ideally this [resolution] puts us in a strong place to move forward on broader networks of community solidarity.”
