After acknowledging receiving numerous messages from the community asking for action, the Saugerties Central School District’s Board of Education is considering a resolution affirming its support for all students in the wake of increased controversial immigration crackdowns nationwide.
At a school board meeting held on Wednesday, February 11, the most talked about subject wasn’t even on the agenda. But with the Kingston City School District’s (KCSD) School Board unanimously adopting its own similar resolution last month, some Saugerties residents are asking for their own board of education to do the same.
Several speakers shared their support for a resolution at last week’s school board meeting, including Ryker Darmanin, a 7th grade student at Saugerties junior high.
“Some students are worried that when they go to school, their parents might not be there when they come home,” he said. “This just happened to my friend in Kingston while he was at school. I can’t even begin to imagine what that feels like. School is already hard, but now he and others have to live in fear while still trying to learn and get through the school day. Saugerties schools are supposed to be the one place where we feel safe, welcomed and able to focus on learning. This can’t be true if students are worried about immigration officers coming to the school ground, near buses, or into classrooms.”
Christine Dinsmore, a retired psychologist who worked with children and adults experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, said the repercussions of Department of Homeland Security immigration sweeps won’t just be felt by those immediately impacted by them.
“Trauma is contagious,” she said. “We have all witnessed families documented with green cards or asylum cases, undocumented, who have lived and contributed peacefully for decades and citizens who are black and brown, being grabbed by ICE and border patrol.
While the image of five-year-old Liam (Conejo Ramos) being ushered into a van by ICE sears in my brain, he is one of many children who have been traumatized by our federal government. It is not only those children and families who are affected. Countless people, especially children, have been traumatized as they witness what’s happening and worry if it can happen to them and their families.”
Ensuring a safe school environment for all students is “the least a caring adult can do, Dinsmore added.
Interim Superintendent Gwendolyn Roraback read a frequently applauded statement on the subject earlier in the meeting.
“I want to begin by acknowledging the fear and uncertainty that many immigrant and multilingual families are experiencing right now,” she said. “Please know that the safety, dignity and well-being of every child in Saugerties Central School District, regardless of their immigration status, is and always will be our top priority…Our schools are safe spaces for children.”
Roraback said the district already has protocols aligning with state and federal laws to protect its students, in part by limiting access to its buildings.
“All exterior school doors remain locked during the instructional day and the entry is controlled,” she said. “We have Atlas security guards stationed at building entrances and work in coordination with school administration. No DHS or ICE agent is permitted to enter the school building, classroom, or other non-public space without a judicial warrant or subpoena signed by a judge. Administrative or civil documents, including ICE detainers or administrative warrants, do not authorize access to school property or students.”
She added that she has affirmed these protocols with staff and security, “but quite honestly, that’s not enough.”
“We do recognize that for some of our students, watching what’s happening around our country is scary,” Roraback said. “And it evokes a lot of fear. So I want to remind parents that we want to support you. We want to protect your children. We want to keep them safe. We have psychologists and social workers who have great expertise. We have the most incredible caring staff here in Saugerties who want to work with your children and all of our families. So please know that our schools are places of learning, first and foremost, care and protection, not enforcement. We stand with our students and families, and we will continue to act within the law to ensure that every child feels safe, welcomed and supported each day to walk through our doors.”
“The superintendent did address the community in a letter that referenced the New York State guidance and the district’s procedures, but these were not included as part of the district’s public safety plan, nor can that guidance be found anywhere on our website,” Trustee Sakinah Irizarry said. “We need to rectify that this time around, because the trauma of seeing how others have been treated despite status or citizenship, seeing how that these people have been treated has only grown in that time, in a year’s time, exactly as it were, when we considered this issue before.”
Irizarry said she felt compelled to speak up as ICE crackdowns have grown over the past year.
“On this matter, I cannot pretend to be neutral because in the face of oppression, neutrality is complicity,” she said. “Speaking out comes with risk, so does staying silent. In honor of Black History Month, I’m going to close with a quote that I shared with my fellow members when advocating for the consideration of such a resolution: ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.’ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I am proud to be part of a body of community members and educational leaders that refuses to be silent.”
Kingston High School students hold anti-ICE walk-out
While local school officials consider strengthening their resolve against increased ICE activity, some students are taking matters into their own hands. Echoing walkout protests happening in schools across the country, several dozen students at Kingston High School walked off campus following the 11:48 a.m. bell on Friday, February 13, crossed Broadway and assembled on the sidewalk facing the school. Some students spoke about why they were protesting, while many others shouted anti-ICE chants.
In a letter sent to the KCSD community the previous day, superintendent Paul Padalino said the planned protest was not sanctioned by Kingston High or the school district, and students who participated would be marked absent from class.
“Safe and legal social activism is the right of all, but as a school district we have a responsibility to ensure the safety of our students,” he wrote. “It is our expectation that students are in school, participating in classes in a safe environment during the regularly scheduled school day.”
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