Education
CPS Planning ‘All-Hands-on-Deck’ Approach to Protecting Students, Families From Mass Deportations
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez appears on “Chicago Tonight” on Oct. 9, 2024. (WTTW News)
With President-elect Donald Trump promising mass deportations once he takes office again next month, Chicago Public Schools leaders say they are taking steps to protect the district’s undocumented students and families.
“This is an all-hands-on-deck effort to support children and provide them with a safe and welcoming educational environment,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said Thursday during a Chicago Board of Education meeting.
Martinez said the district enacted a “comprehensive response” to protect its students, families and staff when Trump’s first term began in 2017, and CPS officials are planning to take similar steps before Trump’s inauguration next month.
Earlier this week, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan said that mass deportations would “start right here in Chicago.”
“We are not taking these threats lightly and be sure that we will stand strong to protect our school communities from harm,” Martinez said.
Last month, the board unanimously approved a resolution cementing CPS as a welcoming district for all students. And Martinez on Thursday reiterated that the district does not coordinate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates also spoke during Thursday’s meeting and implored the district to come to an agreement with the union on a new teacher’s contract before the Trump presidency begins again.
“I implore you as a board of education to work with us, come to the table, so we can get a contract before Christmas, so we can start building a forcefield around this district and our young people that they deserve,” Davis Gates said. “We are on the same team. The real enemy are those who drafted a project to unleash terror on our young people in our country.”
