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Resident asks district for details on staff training after reported federal change to school immigration enforcement
Summary
A Beacon resident asked the Board of Education for details Feb. 24 about staff training and district protocols after citing a reported federal reversal permitting immigration enforcement at schools.
Alexandra Devon, a resident of the Beacon City School District and a volunteer with the nonprofit Defense of Democracy, used public comment time on Feb. 24 to thank Superintendent Matt Landoll for a Jan. 22 community email and to press the district for information about staff training after what she called a recent federal reversal of a 2011 policy.
Devon noted the superintendent’s email reiterated district commitments that “diversity is our strength” and that links in the email referenced the Dignity for All Students Act and New York guidance for transgender and gender-expansive students. She said she was “alarmed by the recent federal reversal of the 02/2011 policy that now allows ICE officers to make arrests at schools” and warned that enforcement at schools would “have devastating consequences for immigrant families and their children.”
She asked whether all faculty and staff “have been trained in how to handle ICE presence at our school” and requested specifics about what the training included and materials the district could share to reassure the community that students will feel safe.
Superintendent Matt Landoll gave a brief reply, saying the most formal training occurred with the administrative team and was conducted jointly with the district’s attorneys. He said the district then created protocols and shared them with office and security staff, including the director of security, and that informal supports involve teachers, social workers and guidance counselors who work with English-as-a-new-language students and their families. “The most formal training we did was with the administrative team and then sharing the protocols out with all of our…office [and] security,” Landoll said, and offered to follow up with more information.
Devon’s comment cited U.S. federal enforcement activity, state statutory protections referenced in the district’s email and the district code of conduct; she asked for community-facing materials that clarify what staff have been trained to do when immigration-enforcement officers are present at schools.
The board did not take formal action during public comment; Landoll said he would provide additional follow-up.
