HARTFORD — The Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of School Superintendents wrote a letter to President Trump about his concern for Connecticut’s school children in light of stepped up immigration enforcement.
The letter reads:
Members of boards of education, superintendents of schools and their central office staffs, school building administrators, especially teachers and most especially children in CT’s public schools are alarmed throughout the state by the specter of federal agents and/or state and local officials who assist them coming to schools and/or school events and apprehending children for the purpose of potential deportation. The alarm itself is disrupting learning and if federal agents and/or state and local officials who assist them begin apprehending children in schools and/or school events, the alarm and the resultant disruption in learning will be extremely harmful to all children who attend CT’s public schools.
We implore you, therefore, to issue an executive order that makes the following clear.
• No child regardless of immigrant and/or citizenship status deserves to have their learning interrupted for the purpose of deporting undocumented immigrants.
• Schools and school activities, therefore, should be immune as places and occurrences at and during which children are apprehended for the purpose of deporting undocumented immigrants.
• Federal agents and/or state and local officials who assist them, therefore, are prohibited from apprehending children for the purpose of potential deportation from schools and/or during school events.
We send this urgent request to you not only in your capacity of President of the United States but also in in your capacity as a father who values his children and we are sure would not have wanted their learning disrupted by anyone apprehending children in school or during school activities for the purpose of deportation.
Respectfully,
Joseph J. Cirasuolo
Executive Director
CAPSSRobert Rader
Executive Director
CABESheila Cohen
President
CEA
