School districts state commitment to student safety following president’s allowing of immigration arrests at schools

By Noah Chavez

Click here for updates on this story

    CORVALLIS, Ore. (KEZI) — President Donald Trump has issued a statement allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to target previously-untouchable locations including schools, hospitals and churches.

School districts have started to let their parents, staff, and students know about established practices centered on student privacy and protection. Dr. Ryan Noss is the Superintendent for the Corvallis School District and said the state of Oregon as a whole already has rules for school districts that protect students.

“There are many rules that we have to follow including being a sanctuary state,” Noss said. “One of those is that we don’t collect information about students’ status or the status of their family. Even if we were to have that information it would be protected under some student privacy rules.”

Noss said it essentially ensures that students will not have their information accessible to any agency.

“We wouldn’t share that information even if we had it and that our schools continue to be a place,” Noss said. “We want to make sure families know that we have those sorts of practices in place.”

Springfield Public Schools Director of Communications and Community Engagement Brian Richardson said his district also follows established protocols and practices to ensure the safety of their students.

“We have state law and District policies, procedures, and practices that provide guidance on achieving educational equity, protecting student privacy and prioritizing the well-being of our students, including immigrant community members,” Richardson said.

During this time of uncertainty, Noss said he wants parents of students enrolled in his district to watch for any school related emails or messages that come out. He added that as more information comes out, they will continue to update parents.

“At this point, there is still too much that is unknown about this for us to comment on it at this time,” Murez said.

“We sent out some information to families a week or two ago that included some of our practices and some of our district polices that have been adapted by our school board,” Noss said. “We’ll just continue to communicate with families and our staff because we know things are still going to change.”

KEZI 9 news also reached out to many hospitals and Catholic churches in the Eugene and Corvallis area. Many of the priests that were not able to talk on camera about the ICE authorization said they had little idea of it and were shocked and angered by the move. Additionally, KEZI 9 News was able to get in contact with Jim Murez who works for PeaceHealth’s Marketing & Communications department. Murez, in a written statement, said that the news is too new for them to offer comment yet.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.