LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles students and teachers return to class for the new academic year Thursday under a cloud of apprehension after a summer filled with immigration raids and amid worries that schools could become a target in the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown.
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has urged immigration authorities not to conduct enforcement activity within a two-block radius around schools starting an hour before the school day begins and until one hour after it classes let out.
“Hungry children, children in fear, cannot learn well,” Carvalho said in a news conference.
He also announced a number of measures intended to protect students and families, including adding or altering bus routes to accommodate more students. The district is to distribute a family preparedness packet that includes know-your-rights information, emergency contact updates and tips on designating a backup caregiver in case a parent is detained.
The sprawling district, which covers more than two dozen cities, is the nation’s second largest with more than 500,000 students. According to the teachers’ union, 30,000 students are immigrants, and an estimated quarter of them are without legal status.
While immigration agents have not detained anyone inside a school, a 15-year-old boy was pulled from a car and handcuffed outside Arleta High School in northern Los Angeles on Monday, Carvalho said.
He had significant disabilities and was released after a bystander intervened in the case of “mistaken identity,” the superintendent said.
“This is the exact type of incident that traumatizes our communities; it cannot repeat itself,” he added.
Administrators at two elementary schools previously denied entry to officials from the Department of Homeland Security in April, and immigration agents have been seen in vehicles outside schools.
DHS did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Carvalho said that while staffers and district police officers cannot interfere with immigration enforcement and do not have jurisdiction beyond school property, they have had conversations with federal agents parked in front of schools that resulted in them leaving.
The district is partnering with local law enforcement in some cities and forming a “rapid response” network to disseminate information about the presence of federal agents, he said.
Teachers say they are concerned some students might not show up the first day.
Lupe Carrasco Cardona, a high school social studies and English teacher at the Roybal Learning Center, said attendance saw a small dip in January when President Donald Trump took office.
The raids ramped up in June right before graduations, putting a damper on ceremonies. One raid at a Home Depot near MacArthur Park, an area with many immigrant families from Central America, took place the same morning as an 8th grade graduation at a nearby middle school.
“People were crying, for the actual graduation ceremony there were hardly any parents there,” Cardona said.
The next week, at her high school graduation, the school rented two buses to transport parents to the ceremony downtown. Ultimately many of the seats were empty, unlike other graduations.
One 11th grader, who spoke on the condition that her last name not be published because she is in the country without legal permission and fears being targeted, said she is afraid to return to school.
“Instead of feeling excited, really what I’m feeling is concern,” said Madelyn, a 17-year-old from Central America. “I am very, very scared, and there is a lot of pressure.”
She added that she takes public transportation to school but fears being targeted on the bus by immigration agents because of her skin color.
“We are simply young people with dreams who want to study, move forward and contribute to this country as well,” she said.
Madelyn joined a club that provides support and community for immigrant students and said she intends to persevere in that work.
“I plan to continue supporting other students who need it very much, even if I feel scared,” she said. “But I have to be brave.”
Some families who decide that the risk is too great to show up in-person have opted for online learning instead, according to Carvalho, with virtual enrollment up 7% this year.
The district has also contacted at least 10,000 parents and visited more than 800 families over the summer to provide information about resources like transportation, legal and financial support and are deploying 1,000 workers from the district’s central office on the first day of classes to “critical areas” that have seen immigration raids.
“We want no one to stay home as a result of fears,” Carvalho said.
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Associated Press reporter Dorany Pineda contributed.