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FUSD To Consider 'Safe Space' Immigration Designation

Jeffrey Hess/KVPR

Fresno Unified Trustees are putting forward a resolution to declare the school district ‘safe place’ for undocumented students. The move is in response to student concerns about the Trump administration’s deportation policies.

Two-thirds of Fresno Unified School district students are Hispanic and district trustees say the heightened talk of more immigration enforcement has rattled the student body.

The ‘safe space’ designation, if adopted, would largely reaffirm existing policies, such as not asking students or families about their immigration status, prohibiting staff from working with ICE, and essentially prohibiting ICE agents from entering a school campus.

Board Trustee Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas says they also want to expand some social services they offer students and their families.

“First, I want to make sure our students have access to consoling or emotion support services should a classmate or their family suffer a loss due to deportation. Second, we help our students and families devise a plan. When facing the prospect of family separation it is crucial, crucial to have a plan,” Jonasson Rosas says.

Trustees say the concerns among students have grown so acute that some are staying home from school. The resolution will be up for a vote at the board’s regular meeting next week.

Jeffrey Hess is a reporter and Morning Edition news host for Valley Public Radio. Jeffrey was born and raised in a small town in rural southeast Ohio. After graduating from Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio with a communications degree, Jeffrey embarked on a radio career. After brief stops at stations in Ohio and Texas, and not so brief stops in Florida and Mississippi, Jeffrey and his new wife Shivon are happy to be part Valley Public Radio.