Kids, staff, parents detained: How federal activity in Minnesota is affecting schools and students
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School officials across Minnesota say that the surge in federal activity is increasingly affecting the daily activities of students, parents and school staff.
District leaders tell MPR News that they have verified incidents in which children, parents and school staff members have been pulled into vehicles by masked agents or detained in other ways.
School districts also report that federal agents have been staging for their enforcement activities in school parking lots, and federal agents have detained and pepper sprayed people on school grounds.
MPR News reached out to approximately 90 of Minnesota’s more than 300 public school districts this week to ask whether student attendance was being affected by the presence of federal enforcement officers throughout the state.
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Approximately two dozen schools responded. Some said there had been no change to school attendance. But over half of respondents — most in the Twin Cities metro — reported that many children are staying home from school because they or their families are afraid of encountering federal agents.
In those districts with widespread federal activity, as many as 20 to 40 percent of students have been absent in recent weeks.
“We've seen a decline in attendance, for sure, especially over the past couple of weeks,” said Aaron Tinklenberg, director of communications for the Burnsville-Eagan-Savage district in the eastern Twin Cities suburbs. “Of course, this is not affecting all of our students evenly. Hispanic students and families have been the most impacted when we're looking at attendance rates.”
Tinklenberg told MPR News that the district is working to expand its online school so that families who want their children to continue learning from home can do so.
The Minneapolis and St. Paul school districts have each cancelled classes for several days in recent weeks in response to concerns about student safety and to allow time for teachers to transition large numbers of students to online learning.
‘ICE agents have been … taking our children’
The Columbia Heights school district, which has a high population of students who are immigrants, said federal agents are very active in their community and have detained at least four of their students in four separate incidents.
“ICE agents have been roaming our neighborhoods, circling our schools, following our buses, coming into our parking lots and taking our children,” said superintendent Zena Stenvik. “The sense of safety in our community and around our schools is shaken, and our hearts are shattered.”
One of the Columbia Heights students who was detained with his father is just 5 years old.
Rumors about ICE activity affecting schools have been circling on social media. In several cases, when MPR News contacted school officials to confirm reports, school leaders said the rumors were untrue or exaggerated.
In other cases, school leaders have confirmed stories about federal agents disrupting school activities.
Both the St. Paul and Anoka-Hennepin school districts say that federal agents stopped school vehicles while children and school staff were inside.
“Two student transportation vans were pulled over by federal agents on their way to school during the early morning hours between 6:15 a.m. and 6:45 a.m. (Tuesday) along Brockton Lane on the border between the cities of Rogers and Dayton,” said Jim Skelly, the executive director of communication for the Anoka Hennepin School District.
“High school students were onboard each of the vehicles. In each instance, drivers took appropriate action to ensure that students remained safe and both vehicles were able to continue to school as planned,” Skelly said, adding that the district had contacted their local law enforcement partners about the incident and that why the vans were stopped, as well as what happened inside the vans, is under investigation.
The Roseville school district and Roseville Police Department told MPR News that federal agents used school parking lots for staging their enforcement activities, triggering school leaders to lock down building doors.
“It is deeply disturbing that district space was used — without our consent — as a launching point for actions taken against our friends and neighbors,” Roseville superintendent Jenny Loeck wrote in an email to district families. “As a district, we remain firm in our commitment to stand with our families. Immigrants are a valued and essential part of our community and our state.”
In the Robbinsdale school district, officials say a parent was detained by ICE agents at a school bus stop on Jan. 14 while children were present.
“All students were able to safely board the school bus and arrive at school,” Robbinsdale Superintendent Teri Staloch said in a note to families. “The school principal and support staff have been in contact with the family and have communicated with families of students who were on the bus.”
Staloch also warned families that “unfortunately, with the increase in ICE activity, there may not be a district-wide communication regarding each incident that occurs. We will continue to communicate to impacted sites and we will share any changes to protocols or district action that affect the entire district.”
— Elizabeth Shockman, MPR News
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