WWNO skyline header graphic
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Local Newscast
Hear the latest from the WWNO/WRKF Newsroom.

Support local, independent journalism on WWNO with your Member Fest gift now! Click the donate button or Call 844-790-1094.

OPSB Passes Policy To Buffer Students From Immigration Enforcement In School

Members of Nuestra Voz posed for a photo with school board members and OPSB superindent Henderson Lewis after the board passed policies meant to buffer students from immigration and law enforcement.
Jess Clark
/
WWNO
Members of Nuestra Voz posed for a photo with school board members and OPSB superintendent Henderson Lewis after the board passed policies meant to buffer students from immigration and law enforcement.

The Orleans Parish School Board passed new guidelines Thursday night that immigrant rights groups say will better protect students from immigration and law enforcement in school.

The policies lay out a number of steps principals have to follow when law enforcement show up and ask to interrogate a student or look at student data as part of an investigation that’s not school related. That includes investigations regarding immigration status. Step one: Law enforcement officers have to show the principal a warrant or other court order.

[Click here for the new policy on student interrogations]

[Click here for the new policy on law enforcement access to student data]

 

 

"The safety of all our students, all of our students, is a top priority here in our school district," says OPSB Superintendent Henderson Lewis, when the board voted unanimously to pass the new guidelines.

Lewis says the guidelines clarify existing policies schools have for cooperating with law enforcement. The board began work on the policy after hearing from local immigrant rights group Nuestra Voz in July.

Speaking through an interpreter after the school board meeting, parent Mario Mendoza says he and other immigrant parents in Nuestra Voz pushed for the policy because of changes they were seeing in the political climate.

"We have seen how hate, and racism, and discrimination has been raising," he says.

Other school districts around the country have passed similar guidelines, includingin Los Angeles, and Durham, North Carolina.

The new board policy only applies to the parish’s direct-run schools. That’s just four schools, out of 87 in Orleans Parish.

Bricolage Academy, a charter school, also passed similar protections after hearing from Nuestra Voz. Nuestra Voz says it's encouraging all charter schools in Orleans Parish to pass similar policies.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that there were three direct-run schools. There are four direct run schools.

👋 Looks like you could use more news. Sign up for our newsletters.

* indicates required
New Orleans Public Radio News
New Orleans Public Radio Info