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Parents press district for clarity on immigration‑enforcement response; administration says staff trained but will not disclose security details
Summary
Community members asked what school staff should do if federal immigration agents arrive without a judge‑signed warrant. Interim Superintendent Dr. Shields said staff have been trained and protocols are in place but declined to provide operational details in public for student safety.
Multiple community members raised concerns at the Jan. 28 Port Washington Board of Education meeting about how the district would respond if federal immigration enforcement officials came to a school without a judge‑signed warrant.
"Can you just tell me simply, if federal immigration officials show up at this campus without a judge‑signed warrant, what happens next?" asked Mike Shodel during public comment. The board's practice, stated by trustees, is to answer such questions at the following meeting; Dr. Shields offered to follow up by email and noted the issue is "nuanced."
Several speakers said recent enforcement events in the community had increased fear among families. Ellen Fox recounted seeing community members taken from a local store and said families and children are frightened: "These families are in fear. These children are in fear." Another commenter asked how the district plans to inform taxpayers and residents about its guidance.
Board trustee Adam Smith said an email had been sent to the community with a link to detailed guidance and that staff had been trained. Dr. Shields told the meeting: "For the safety and security of our students, going into the details of how we handle something like that is really not appropriate. But please be assured that we have gone into very, very fine details on how something like this would be handled. And we are 100% here to support the students if something like this ever were to happen."
Tessa Jordan urged the board to make the guidance available to staff who are not administrators, including paraprofessionals, coaches and others who work with students: "They need to know it by tomorrow." Trustees and the superintendent said attorneys were reviewing the district's options and reiterated that operational details would not be disclosed in public for safety reasons. The board did not change any policy during the meeting but said staff were aware of the protocols and that administrators had been instructed on steps to take if law enforcement appeared on campus.
The district encouraged concerned community members to contact the superintendent's office for further information and said a fuller response would be provided at a later meeting.
