Minneapolis Public Schools will offer an online learning option through Feb. 12 to families who need it, the district announced Friday. The move comes after the district closed schools for two days, following a Border Patrol arrest of a staffer on school grounds.
Marcia Howard, president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, praised the move on Facebook on Thursday night, saying the union had brought this proposal to the district.
“This is an OPTION and exactly what so many families need right now,” she said.
Amanda Otero, co-executive director of TakeAction Minnesota, also praised the move.
“Many families are not feeling safe to go out right now. In fact, they are not safe to go out right now,” she told Sahan Journal. “So it’s really important that we have options, and give folks and families information to make the best decision for their family.”
The district’s announcement comes two days after an ICE officer fatally shot Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother who had just dropped her 6-year-old son off at a Minneapolis charter school. Later that day, Border Patrol agents showed up at Roosevelt High School, detaining a school staff member and deploying chemical irritants on school grounds on a crowd that included dozens of students.
Minneapolis Public Schools closed Thursday and Friday, citing an “abundance of caution” over safety concerns. School districts in Columbia Heights and Fridley closed Friday as well, citing safety concerns.
“We are choosing to cancel school tomorrow because so many in our community are scared, unsure if it is safe to travel or leave home, and are experiencing very real trauma,” Fridley Superintendent Brenda Lewis wrote in an email to families. “We have seen a major spike in absences and staff availability as families and employees make the best decisions they can to protect themselves and their children.”
More than 100 educators, parents, and children rallied Friday morning at Lake Hiawatha, blocks from Roosevelt High School, to demand ICE stay out of Minnesota schools.
At the news conference, speakers lambasted the fear and violence federal agents had inflicted on schoolchildren.
“As a mama, I am angry, I’m scared, and I am devastated about what we are doing to our babies,” Otero said. “And right now, places where they should not only be safe, but be cared for and nurtured to learn and grow, are being made unsafe.”
Otero called on elected officials to “use the full extent of their power to get ICE out of Minnesota.”
Natasha Dockter, vice president of the teacher chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators, detailed what happened at Roosevelt High School on Wednesday.
“Let me be very, very clear, immigration enforcement should never, under any circumstances, be on school grounds,” Dockter said. “And while Wednesday’s event at Roosevelt was horrific and traumatic for our members, students and community, it unfortunately was not surprising, and it’s not even the main story here in Minneapolis. The main story is about the violence against our immigrant neighbors and the fear and collateral damage it is causing across our communities.”
She asked Minneapolis residents to obtain whistles and plug into their local rapid response networks.
Jennifer Arnold, the parent of a second-grader in a Minneapolis school and the executive director of Inquilinxs Unidxs, said she had been working with families at her child’s school to coordinate rides and grocery deliveries so that children could safely get to school and have access to food.
“Our neighbors cannot leave their homes,” she said. “They can’t go to work. They can’t go to the school bus stops. They can’t go to doctor’s appointments. To say our neighbors, our immigrant neighbors, are afraid does not capture it. They cannot leave their homes, or they’ll be snatched away from their families. Many of these folks have papers to work and sometimes even citizenship, but the threat our immigrant neighbors are facing is real.”
Arnold said that ICE had picked up community members outside two Minneapolis elementary schools on Wednesday, the same day that Good was killed. She asked people to join school patrols and mutual aid networks.
Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, who represents the south Minneapolis neighborhood of Roosevelt High School, told Sahan Journal that Roosevelt families were already worried before Border Patrol agents showed up on Wednesday.
“There had already been instances of unmarked vehicles showing up and worries that people were being taken and parents were being taken,” she said. “So they’re already dealing with that. They’re already dealing with if students miss more than 15 days, they’re automatically unenrolled.”
Then, ICE showed up in large numbers and appeared to be targeting schools, she said. She described the district’s move to allow students to learn remotely as “an important step.”
Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who is running for an open U.S. Senate seat, also attended the rally.
“Districts need the flexibility to be able to respond in this moment,” she told Sahan Journal. “I’m horrified that this option needs to be on the table, distance learning — we need kids in school.” But, she said, she understood that districts might need this option “when children don’t feel safe, because there are federal agents who clearly do not have the safety of children in mind.”
She said she hoped to bring what she’d seen in Minneapolis to the U.S. Senate.
“I think that ICE needs to be held accountable for the chaos and the terror that they’re creating in our community,” she said. “It is clear to me that what they’re doing is unconstitutional. They should come before Congress. I think Kristi Noem needs to be impeached.”
Flanagan, the mother of a seventh-grader in St. Louis Park Schools, said she had been participating in her community’s rapid response thread, including showing up for patrol at an elementary school.
“Everyone has to use all of the tools in their toolbox,” she said. “I’m an elected leader with a platform — and I’m a community member who’s figuring out, how are we responding in this moment? Are we also getting food to families who can’t leave their homes? We’re also doing what we can, just as people, just as neighbors.”
