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Board widens immigration nondiscrimination policy to ban staff threats and negative statements about status
Summary
On a unanimous vote the board added language to its immigration/discrimination policy to cover vendors and volunteers and to bar district employees from making threats or "negative statements" about a student's or parent's immigration status; the change followed community advocacy and multiple revisions by general counsel.
The Tucson Unified School District governing board adopted final revisions to Policy ACB (immigration and nondiscrimination) after considering several rounds of edits from board members and counsel.
Phil Lopez, who originated the item, and other advocates had asked the district to clarify that staff, vendors, volunteers and officers acting under contract must not intimidate or raise a person's immigration status. General Counsel Ross revised the posted language to reflect the boarddiscussion and Trustee Foster proposed a blue-line addition phrased to bar district employees from making "threats or negative statements pertaining to a student's or parent's immigration status." Trustees debated format and phrasing but legal counsel said the additional sentence was consistent with civil-rights protections and not inconsistent with law. Lopez and the community groups he represented (Our Revolution, People Demanding Action, Progressive Democrats of America) supported the broader wording.
Trustee Sedgwick and others expressed concern about overbreadth and enforcement: they asked for careful drafting to avoid chilling protected speech or creating ambiguity about what counts as a negative statement. Counsel said the policy must be read in context with federal civil-rights protections and that staff training and clear definitions in regulations can limit ambiguity. The board adopted the Ross text plus the Foster addition (with a comma correction) and approved the policy unanimously.
Trustees indicated intent to follow up with training for staff and clarification of how vendors, volunteers and contracted officers are covered by the policy.
