The Los Angeles Unified School District is taking measures to protect its students amid heightened concerns over President Donald Trump’s hard stance on immigration, the district’s superintendent assured in an interview with NBC4 on Monday.
Alberto Carvalho, LAUSD Superintendent, said its schools will deny entry to federal agents claiming to perform “wellness checks” on students unless they have proper documentation that cannot be declined.
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“A judicial warrant signed by a judge with the name of the individual, minor or not, within that warrant is what we require as evidence, justifiable evidence, to contact and access anyone in our schools,” Carvalho said. “Short of a warrant, you are treated as anyone else in our schools.”
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SIGN UP The district made headlines earlier this month after Homeland Security Investigations officers visited two schools to conduct what the department said were “wellness checks.” Ultimately, they were denied entrance to the campuses.
Carvalho noted that attendance was impacted at the two schools following the federal officers’ presence, likely due to fears from families who may have undocumented members. District-wide, however, there has not been a decline in student attendance, and he credits that to the district’s protective nature.
“Our board passed a number of resolutions affirming our values, declaring the legal protections from a civil but also a personal perspective, and also federal law and constitutional law that protect students and families in our schools,” he said.
The superintendent said the district follows the U.S. Constitution to protect its students, despite their legal status.
“The equal protection clause declares that all students, regardless of immigration status, have a right to a free public education in any school across America,” he said. “Secondly, there’s a very important law in education called FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), a federal law that guarantees their privacy and confidentiality. That means we shall not provide any information about our students or their families to anyone. And thirdly, and this is the most important one, in loco parentis – which basically in Latin means in the absence of parents, myself, as superintendent, a teacher, a principal, need to act in a protective manner as if they were the parents of children.”
Carvalho affirmed the district’s dedication to educating its students and taking their safety seriously. He also assured LAUSD is a safe space for children where they can focus on learning and taking advantage of the resources the district has to offer.
“Schools are places where they get nutrition, education, and inspiration,” he said. “Schools should not be places of fear for our workforce or our students.”
