District passes resolution to support undocumented students

The San Mateo Union High School District (SMUHSD) Board of Trustees passed a resolution on Dec. 15 that prevents the release of undocumented students’ private information to immigration-related federal agencies without parental consent or legal requirement by law.

Aragon Principal Patricia Kurtz explains the reasons for the resolution, saying, “The Board of Trustees felt that [they should] do a resolution like this in light of the recent election of President Trump [since] there were concerns … that students would not be safe. That was the reason that they went forward to go on record that they would not release information unless parents are giving the information and also unless we are legally required to.”

SMUHSD Board of Trustees Vice-President Peter Hanley discusses the process of drafting the resolution. He says, “My colleague, Mr. Friedman, was the one who brought forth the initiative to pass a resolution … so that the community … would know that it’s our intention to continue to enforce law basically and to enforce student privacy rights and other rights that students have … I worked with Superintendent Skelly and the San Mateo County counsel’s office to come up with [a] resolution that was appropriate and we brought it forward at the December meeting … and the Board unanimously adopted the resolution. [The resolution] did not take long at all [to pass]. It was not a controversial resolution. As I recall, it was under 10 minutes [to pass the resolution].”

SMUHSD Superintendent Kevin Skelly explains that the resolution cements the existing approach of the district toward student’s private information. He says, “We can’t, for example, give away your student’s information … This resolution affirms those kinds of things and says to folks that … we are not giving forward any information about students, that students have a right to come and get an education here. … We do not ask about whether you are here legally or whether you are from another country … We are responsible for educating kids, regardless of where they are from. With this election, some students may be feeling afraid, so our job here is to make sure they understand that we are not part of [reporting immigrants.] We will only do that if we [are required] by law.”

Aragon special education and history teacher Michael Gibbons believes that this resolution will benefit the undocumented students psychologically. He says, “Hopefully, it will provide some level of reassurance and comfort to students who were here illegally and were concerned about deporting … Hopefully, it would be seen as a public declaration that we are on their side … because we have students … who are here illegally [at] Aragon, so I think it is important for them to know that they do not need to worry about us ratting them out to the [federal government].”

On Jan. 19, Aragon members participated in a staged walk-in, where they expressed feelings of unity and community. Kurtz says, “[The walk-in] didn’t influence the passage of [the resolution], but the walk-in was to support the resolution.”

As Skelly discusses, Halley also explains that the resolution emphasized the district’s existing priority in protecting public education. He says, “I think what the resolution did was to make people more clearly aware of the district’s stance on those issues … It has made clear that it’s important that we are going to continue with those policies — that we are going to continue to respect student rights and respect the importance that all students are educated in an environment that is comfortable for them and that promotes their learning — that we are going to continue to support all of our students regardless of race, religion, immigration status [or] any of the other protected classes that are enumerated in our civil rights laws.”

Hanley adds, “We are going to continue to enforce civil rights legislation in the district and we have always done that, and we are going to continue to do that.”