Teachers Scrambled After ICE Released Tear Gas Outside a Chicago Elementary School

Maria Heavener had opened the windows of her first-grade classroom to let in the unusually warm October breeze when the sound of helicopters sirens and a flood of notifications compelled her to slam them shut During a raid on a nearby grocery store U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had hurled tear gas canisters into a parking lot across the street from Chicago s Funston Elementary School spreading a thick choking smog toward the building while class was in session Heavener had heard rumors that ICE was planning to detain unaccompanied minors and that schools could be a target but this scenario had never crossed her mind We definitely didn t expect what happened she stated We didn t expect them to throw tear gas right outside of our school building For the last month the Trump administration has kept Chicago under siege Customs and Dividing line Protection agents arrested a -year-old U S citizen earlier this week after unleashing tear gas into a crowded residential neighborhood Earlier in October masked federal agents raided a five-story apartment building in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Chicago and zip-tied naked children as they dragged their parents away The Trump administration indicates that Chicago is unsafe and requirements order despite the fact that the city experienced its lowest homicide rate in years this summer But instead of investing in underfunded schools or attempting to eradicate poverty which have been shown to increase society safety the administration is pouring millions into the militarization of American cities and fighting a court battle to federalize the National Guard in Chicago We didn t expect them to throw tear gas right outside of our school building The Trump administration s war on immigrants has had a disastrous impact on the city s children Chicago teachers reported The Intercept The smoke bombs that they dropped in front of school right at dismissal the detainment of grown-ups after they drop off their children or as they re picking them up All of that is violent All of that is traumatic explained Stacy Davis Gates president of the Chicago Teachers Union And for the first time that is what a multitude of students in this city are experiencing Heavener explained she struggled to explain the events that occurred on October to her class of and -year-olds A lot of them were sad worried scared nervous she mentioned Specific of them stated they re scared because they don t want their own family members to be taken away One of her students became so overwhelmed that he had a panic attack It s very scary because this is their normal commented Heavener You start forming your memories more solidly around or years old so they have chosen happy kindergarten memories But now all of sudden this is going to take over their experiences and worldview and it s going to shape a lot for them and it s traumatic and they re all going to hold that in their bodies as they grow up Related ICE Held an NYC Child Incommunicado at Secret Hotels Then Deported Him The stakes feel even higher at schools with older kids where Heavener and other staff fear students will become targets The up-to-date arrest of the -year-old Heavener revealed has had a particular chilling effect His lawyers allege that the teenager was detained in a federal facility for five hours without anyone telling his family where he was being held The Department of Homeland Safeguard denied that CBP kidnapped the teen noting that a U S citizen teenager threw eggs and hit a CBP Officer in the head The media is sadly attempting to create a state of fear and smear law enforcement These smears are contributing to our ICE law enforcement officers facing increase in assaults against them DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a report ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at or raiding schools ICE is not going to schools to make arrests of children Criminals are no longer be able to hide in America s schools to avoid arrest The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement and instead trusts them to use common sense Attendance at a lot of schools is down Gates notified The Intercept Senior nights have been cancelled Fall sports and after-school programs have been sparsely attended because of the unpredictability and the violence of Trump s troops It makes me want to cry revealed Heavener Generally the societal norm is that children are sacred and we take care of our children Now it seems like they re being targeted Amid the chaos Gates noted that teachers parents students and society organizers had come together to help make students safer At Funston Elementary for example district members lined the streets to form a safe walking corridor for students and their families after the tear-gas episode Heavener mentioned the locality has remained vigilant for ICE activity although Facebook shuttered local groups used to alert schools about ICE s presence Kathryn an elementary school music lecturer who longed to use her first name to protect her school from being targeted by ICE has tried to make her classroom a safe space for her students It s even more pivotal right now that we have stable predictable classrooms and especially places where students can continue to be imaginative and experience happiness and learn to work with other people she declared and especially learn to work with people who are different from them Still she revealed normalcy and ecstasy are laborious to achieve in the current surroundings I m worried every day announced Kathryn I m worried that we ll have kids here waiting to be picked up and nobody will ever come for them because we ve seen it happen A middle school trainee was not long ago at home when ICE came to detain their parents Through the process Kathryn learned how to manage the fact that you can set up temporary guardianship for a minor if it s less than a year she declared I would like to live in a world where that s not a thing I need to know but I do Read Our Complete Coverage The War on Immigrants Despite asserts from the Trump administration that Chicago is unsafe Kathryn argues they re the ones who ve turned the streets into a war zone I was born and raised in Chicago disclosed Kathryn I ve never seen the city as unsafe as it is right now with them here Related Trump s Chicago Occupation Could Cost Four Times More Than Housing City Homeless What makes it worse is that the money the administration is spending to deploy federal agents to patrol outside of elementary schools could genuinely make a difference in Chicago Masses Schools An estimate from the National Priorities Project ascertained that a National Guard deployment to Chicago in the present blocked in federal court could cost roughly million a day The latest Republican spending bill added billion to ICE s enforcement budget a boost that nearly triples the billion operating budget for the entire Chicago inhabitants school system which includes schools Our school budget was slashed by two-thirds here declared Kathryn She pointed out that ICE is offering signing bonuses for people who are willing to kidnap other people while she finds herself telling kids Sorry you can t join the band right now because I don t have enough instruments The post Teachers Scrambled After ICE Disclosed Tear Gas Outside a Chicago Elementary School appeared first on The Intercept