Journalist: Heba Saleh (TU)
This act comes in response to the raids of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a federal agency within the Department of Homeland Security that has been taking individuals they suspect of not having gone through proper immigration procedures from public places. This has included schools.
SNU-502 would ensure that students and staff are properly prepared by being taught their legal rights when encountering officers of federal agencies. The bill expressly included Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a result of the mass ICE raids.
Many argued in favor of the bill, citing the immigration raids, the need to prepare students, the emphasis within the bill on the legal rights of the individual and their families, and the decision of Governor Kevin Stitt who, over the course of the first few months of the year, rejected the federal attempt to send ICE into schools.
Others, however, took issue with the grade level of the students who would be participating in such drills. While the bill did not provide that students from kindergarten through the twelfth grade would be participating in these drills, it did say that all school districts would be obligated to conduct the drills. Representatives interpreted this as including all grade levels within each school in the district.
While many of them appreciated the intention behind the bill, they believed that kindergarteners were far too young to be exposed to federal agencies with one representative saying that having these drills would make the children afraid of police, referring to the federal agents.
Others took no issue with the unstated age requirement, however. Such representatives believed that many children, particularly those in certain demographics, are already aware of the existence of ICE. They further believed that knowing what to do in case ICE comes to their school would not make children more fearful of the officers nor would the instruction of what to do indicate that.
Ultimately, the bill passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 39-24.