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鈥淪chool is safe. It鈥檚 the journey between home and school that is causing people to stay home, including U.S. citizens.鈥� 

That was one local district administrator’s swift reply when asked what she wants people to know about educating kids in the Twin Cities right now.   

Two weeks after federal agents killed Minneapolis mother Renee Good, virtually every aspect of schooling throughout the region is being shaken by the presence of some 3,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol officers. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e being impacted on a basis that well outpaces targeted immigration enforcement,鈥� says Heather Anderson, a Minneapolis Public Schools parent who runs a nonprofit education-related program for students of color. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pervasive. Everybody is being affected. Nobody can go to work. Nobody can use the school bus. 鈥�. I literally just dropped a load of groceries off to a family who can鈥檛 leave their house.鈥� 

At one of Anderson鈥檚 neighborhood schools, an estimated two-thirds of students are enrolled in distance learning, she says, but many families lack wifi or hotspots. The number of students participating in her in-person program has dropped by half.    

鈥淭he kids who did come, several gave reports that ICE had been in their apartment complex, in their buildings, on their streetcorners,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e worked really hard at just creating a bubble of joy for them.鈥�

Educator Kara Cisco lives a couple of blocks from where Good was killed. 鈥淢y daughters are terrified even though they don鈥檛 fit a category that would fall under those that are targeted,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e both carrying their own passports. That鈥檚 scary.鈥�

On the first day of distance learning, attendance in one of her daughter鈥檚 classes dropped from 25 students to nine, even though most are citizens. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the general sense of fear,鈥� says Cisco. 鈥淚鈥檝e got one daughter that鈥檚 texting me pretty much every hour on the hour to notify me of the ICE presence around school.鈥�

Federal agents outnumber the officers employed by the metropolitan area鈥檚 10 largest police departments combined. They are roaming neighborhoods 鈥� often in convoys of unmarked SUVs 鈥� detaining U.S. citizens and legal residents along with people whose status is unknown. have reported ICE , in at least one instance at gunpoint.     

St. Paul Public Schools reported that two vans were stopped by ICE last week. Students and parents in urban and suburban school systems have been detained while waiting for school buses or public transit. A Hiawatha Collegiate High School senior was at a Minneapolis bus stop Jan. 15. A parent waiting with multiple Robbinsdale Area Public Schools students the day before.

The Department of Homeland Security claims to have detained 3,000 people so far. On Friday, a federal judge ordered the agents to stop using pepper spray and non-lethal munitions and detaining protesters and observers unless they obstruct the officers or there is reason to believe a crime has been committed. The U.S. Department of Justice this week appealed the order, even as residents continue to report observer detentions.     

Several labor unions 鈥� including educator unions in St. Paul and Minneapolis 鈥� have called for a general strike Jan. 23, and some students have said they plan to join what鈥檚 being described as an economic protest. St. Paul schools will be in session. In Minneapolis and many Twin Cities charter schools, the strike will coincide with a long-scheduled teacher record-keeping day. 

Asked at a what it feels like to attend classes now, a teen in a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of Roosevelt High School 鈥� where ICE agents pepper-sprayed and tackled parents, educators and students the day Good was killed 鈥� said it was hard seeing how many kids were not there. 

鈥淲hen I came to school and I found lots of friends and classmates missing, it was scary,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 imagine what they were going through.鈥� 

The chaos has made it hard for schools to create and communicate contingency plans. The St. Paul district closed Jan. 20 and 21 to allow educators to organize distance learning options. Parents and teachers in other districts, however, are reporting school-by-school ad hoc arrangements.   

A parent at a high-poverty Minneapolis school in a neighborhood where an ICE agent last week says her child鈥檚 in-person classes are overstuffed as some teachers are temporarily reassigned to teach groups of kids online. Like many parents and educators, she asked not to be named for fear that her child鈥檚 school would be targeted. 

Adding to the strain, it鈥檚 unclear whether kids who are technically enrolled in remote instruction are actually online. Numerous students at her child鈥檚 school are simply no longer attending any classes because a parent or sibling has been detained, the parent says. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 happening at such breathtaking speed,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hat are you even going to do?鈥�   

forced the small, social-justice themed charter school attended by Good鈥檚 6-year-old to move entirely online, according to Sahan Journal, a Minnesota news outlet focused on immigrants and people of color. Good had been appointed to the Southside Family Charter School鈥檚 board in August, according to the news site. 

Residents not at risk of deportation are waiting outside schools and at bus stops before and after classes, but parents and advocates say many families are still too fearful to leave their homes.  

鈥淧arents don鈥檛 even want rides,鈥� says one St. Paul education advocacy group leader who did not want their name used because they are at risk of detention. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e like, 鈥業鈥檓 not going nowhere.鈥� … With COVID, we feared the disease itself, but it still wasn鈥檛 like if you walked outside your door there might be a masked man that jumps out at you.鈥�

鈥淭his is no longer about immigration enforcement,鈥� says Josh Crosson, executive director of the advocacy group EdAllies. 鈥淚t feels like we鈥檙e all in a collective trauma.鈥�

Twin Cities schools are still grappling with the impact of the pandemic and of unrest in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 murder in 2020, he adds. 鈥淪tudents are witnessing their classmates and friends being abducted or removed from their school communities. The direct and indirect trauma is resulting in increased behavioral incidents with students, withdrawal and disengagement, difficulty concentrating.鈥�  

Like many other parents and teachers, Anderson is frustrated that inequities in distance learning and community support persist even after COVID. 鈥淪chools with lots of resources are mobilizing quickly, and schools without resources have nothing,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e really aren鈥檛 in distance learning. We are really just not having kids in school if they鈥檙e poor.鈥�  

Cisco echoed this, noting that a big difference from pandemic remote instruction is the lack of an official coordinated response.     

鈥淎 great deal of federal funding helped pay for things during COVID such as hotspots,鈥� says Cisco. 鈥淚t鈥檚 never been a foregone conclusion that every family has access to the internet 鈥� particularly those that are in sanctuary settings. … It鈥檚 absurd to expect a scholar to learn under these circumstances.鈥�

“Creating the conditions for real learning to take place, that is completely lost when half your class is suddenly gone.”

鈥擪ara Cisco

Teachers, she adds, spend a lot of time building community and a sense of psychological safety, especially with students who are homeless or face other kinds of instability: 鈥淐reating the conditions for real learning to take place, that is completely lost when half your class is suddenly gone.鈥�  

In a , Rochester Superintendent Kent Pekel said people of color and immigrants in his community 鈥� including citizens and district staff 鈥� are fearful of leaving their homes.

鈥淚 have no doubt that how each of us responds to this present moment will have a powerful impact on how our students see themselves and our society in the years ahead,鈥� he said.

As horrific as the violence has been, Anderson says, she also is proud that young people are watching the community organize. 鈥淢y kids have lived with this through many iterations,鈥� she says. They know this is what their parents are going to do when their neighbors need us. 

鈥淭hey have gotten to see us love with our feet and our hands.鈥�  

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