Dozens of parents, students and teachers urge board to ‘keep ICE out of schools’

A broad cross‑section of parents, teachers, students and community organizers used a packed public‑comment period Tuesday to press the Placentia‑Yorba Linda Unified School District board to reject any measure that would allow immigration‑enforcement officers to operate inside schools without judicial warrants.

Speakers—55 in all according to the meeting announcement—told trustees that allowing immigration‑enforcement access to buses, classrooms or other nonpublic areas would traumatize students, discourage attendance and parental participation, and could expose the district to lawsuits. Many referenced AB49 and Education Code §234.7 when urging the board to adopt policy language that protects student privacy.

"Allowing ICE agents onto PYLUSD campuses could potentially subject our community to contribute to this number, disrupting the feeling of safety on campus for hundreds of students," said Eric Gao speaking for several students from Yorba Linda High School. Other parents described fear of masked officers at a school door and asked trustees to prioritize student well‑being.

Teachers’ union leaders and staff urged trustees to separate individual trustees’ social‑media statements from formal board positions and to avoid politicizing classrooms. Gloria Johnson, president of the teachers’ association, asked the board to avoid blaming the entire teaching force for individual actions and to support educators’ work on class size and safety.

Several speakers alleged specific incidents circulated on social media—most notably a claim about a student stopped by ICE—that trustees and staff could not corroborate during the meeting. Legal counsel and district leadership repeatedly told the board that the policy under consideration (BP 1445) is intended to limit staff disclosure and to require training for staff to identify lawful warrants; they also said the district had no documented instances of federal agents entering campuses.

The volume and tenor of testimony shaped trustee discussion of both the new policy and an accompanying resolution on law‑enforcement support. Trustees acknowledged the community’s fear and asked staff and counsel to produce administrative regulations that make staff procedures and safety steps explicit.

The meeting’s public‑comment segment included students who said they would stop attending school if they feared classmates might be removed, parents who pointed to AB49 and state guidance, and community organizers who called the resolution politically loaded. The hearing ended with trustees adopting BP 1445 and a narrowed resolution of support for law‑enforcement agencies that partner with the district; trustees emphasized the distinction between a governance statement and operational policy.