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NEW BEDFORD — The School Committee on Monday failed to pass a resolution that sought to affirm the district’s commitment to protecting immigrant students from federal deportation raids. The committee’s inaction sparked frustration and outrage from many advocates in attendance.
The resolution, introduced by committee member Melissa Costa, included language that supported immigrant students as well as some policy commitments. District officials said that many of its commitments — including to not share student data or admit arresting officers into schools without a warrant — were already the operating procedures of the district and in compliance with federal and state law. Other measures would have formalized procedures the district said it’s already taking — including communicating with parents, educating students about their rights, and designating individuals to respond in the event of a raid.
It was the second straight meeting where the resolution failed to pass, after it was removed from the May agenda due to a parliamentary error. The committee opted to table the measure until its next meeting, on Aug. 11.
The about 40 audience members in attendance — many of whom were members of the local teacher’s union, paraprofessionals union, or the advocacy group New Bedford Coalition to Save Our Schools — expressed their near unanimous disapproval of the committee’s action. Each of the eight speakers during the public comment period supported the resolution, too.
As the audience learned that some members would not support the resolution, many shouted out remarks and attempted rebuttals. When the committee ultimately demurred taking any action, several yelled “Shame! Shame!” as they walked out of the meeting.
The emotion in the room reached a boiling point when Mayor Jon Mitchell addressed a shouting audience member directly, saying, “You’re going to get removed.” Ultimately the person allowed committee members to speak and no action was taken.
The strongest support for the resolution came from two committee members, Melissa Costa and Colleen Dawicki. “I am fully in support of the resolution,” Dawicki said, adding that even if the resolution didn’t change much policy, it was a signal of support to families.
“There isn’t much we can do as a School Committee … but I’d rather do all we can,” Dawicki said. She said affirming that the district would follow the state attorney general’s guidance and federal student privacy laws were signals worth sending.
“Did the abolitionists say it wasn’t our problem? We’re really proud of our history here,” Dawicki said, and challenged other committee members to “stand up for our kids and our city today.”
Other committee members walked a middle ground of moral support and technical disagreement. Jack Livramento said he supported immigrant families, but “there is some language that is concerning to me” in the resolution, and he referenced the section on student data privacy.
Ross Grace Jr. said, “I’m fully behind doing anything to protect all of our children … and I’m willing to be at the front line,” but he added, “I do have an issue with the language.”
Bruce Oliveira said, “I believe that we currently have policies in place that do quite a bit to protect students. A lot of this is repetitive.” He also said that designating a “rapid response team,” which was the resolution’s language for formalizing a response to a potential raid, could potentially add job responsibilities. “That may be a bargaining issue,” Oliveira said.
Chris Cotter said he would not support the resolution, reiterating “these are things the district already has in place,” and adding, “It’s not the School Department’s role to tell ICE how to conduct their business.”
The committee’s discussion posed many questions, indicating that its elected members were still getting up to speed on the district’s current operating procedures, their ability to make resolutions, and the process for how to do so.
One of the biggest roadblocks was outlined by Mayor Mitchell, the committee’s ex officio chair, whose first remark during the committee’s discussion asked whether anyone had sought the advice of legal counsel.
“I’m not going to vote for anything that has not been reviewed by counsel,” Mitchell said.
Committee member Costa asked why this was the first time the concern about counsel was brought up. “This resolution has been available to all of us for over a month now,” she said.
The mayor offered remarks about his take on the resolution, and federal immigration policy more broadly: “Everyone in this room has some real misgivings about the way immigration law has been enforced. I’ve criticized the new administration in Washington and have been pointed in those criticisms.”
At an April 16 press conference, Mitchell criticized ICE for not sharing accurate information with local law enforcement and said that arrests ought to focus on criminals. Mitchell’s press conference came after the high-profile arrest of Juan Francisco Méndez, an immigrant from Guatemala with no Massachusetts criminal record.
At the school committee meeting, Mitchell continued: “The [federal government’s] overreaching is going to collapse on itself eventually, though that will take some time. It pains me, as it does everyone up here, to see people arrested who are not criminals.” He went on, “While the administration in Washington is making a show of it, Congress is sitting idly by and not figuring out … real immigration reform. Until that happens, we’re going to continue to have this chaos, unfortunately.”
On the resolution, Mitchell said, “This goes into far greater detail about who the superintendent can communicate to … a level of operational detail that we don’t touch.” He also said that in debating a resolution that was similar to existing policy, “we start to open ourselves up for a lot of division and dissension that distracts us.”
Ultimately, the committee voted 4-3 in favor of tabling the resolution, with members Costa, Dawicki, and Grace voting no in an effort to keep it alive.
“I remain hopeful that it will be back on the agenda in August and that we’ll do our due diligence,” said Melissa Costa on Tuesday.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
The school committee has no right to interfere with ICE or law enforcement in legal, authorized, deportation activities. They risk arrest if they do.
The resolution doesn’t say that anyone should interfere with ICE. It simply expresses support of migrant students.