AURORA | Students from Aurora Public Schools are leading a campaign to make the sixth-largest school district in the state a safe haven for immigrants regardless of legal status.
The students, many immigrants and refugees themselves from Asian and African countries, along with the nonprofit Rise Colorado, last week presented the APS school board with a resolution that would declare the school system a “safe and inclusive school community.”
“(Immigrant students) all want an education, they all want to be safe. Every student should feel safe in school and not worried about their families being deported. They should be happy in school instead of stressing out about what’s going on around them,” said Mu Cheet Cheet, 14, a freshman at Aurora West College Preparatory Academy, part of the group that presented the resolution. Her parents left Burma for Thailand, where Cheet and her sister were born before the family immigrated to the United States seven years ago.
“My mom told me about the resolution and I wanted to help,” Cheet said. “I am kind of scared because when I go to school, I worry about people getting deported. It was shocking to me that this was a reality. I wanted to make people’s voices heard who haven’t had their voices heard. I wanted to speak for them.”
Rise Colorado, an education-centered nonprofit, has worked with a large group of immigrant students and gotten them in front of school board members to work on the language of a resolution.
Along with reaffirming APS as being welcoming to all students regardless of background, the resolution would make sure teachers never release information about immigration status of students. It also would task APS leadership with creating a system for undocumented parents to work with schools to make sure in the event they are detained by immigration officials teachers and schools would know who would be taking care of children.
Anjali Chujel, 17, a senior at Aurora Central High School whose family immigrated from Nepal in 2015, is another student that has pushed the resolution. She said it has been sad to see her fellow students scared about what might happen to their parents and to them while they are at school.
“What I see every day at my school is a lot of sad faces. Students are really worried about their immigration status and it makes me feel really bad,” Chuel said. “This is important because if this resolution can get passed, every single student can be stress-free. They will get a proper learning environment and they don’t have to worry about how safe their school is.”
The resolution was presented to the APS school board during an emotional meeting on May 2. At the meeting, many students who themselves came to the country as refugees and asylum seekers spoke out for their classmates. Letters from undocumented parents were also read by volunteers, pleading with the board to protect their children while they’re in school.
Arely, an undocumented parent from Mexico who asked her last name name not be used, was one of the parents whose letter was read before the school board. A mother of four children born in the U.S., her three oldest are in elementary school in APS. She wanted the district to know how a resolution of support would help give her peace of mind when she sends her children to school.
“We want our children to go to school in safety and security and it’s great to see we’re all united in that one purpose,” Arely said through an interpreter. “We have a very diverse group of people supporting us and I feel they identify with all the immigrant families. We have dreams, we have hopes and we struggle mightily for our children. The reason why I am here, and I want everyone to know, is we have the same hopes and dreams for our children as any parent has for their children. I want them to feel safe in school and I want to have peace of mind when they are there.”
The group is currently at work on refining the draft resolution presented on May 2. During the school board’s next meeting on May 16, the board is set to discuss the resolution and any changes that have been made.
“I really commend the community’s effort and time put into it especially from Rise Colorado and from all the different other language speakers,” said APS Board Member Barbara Yamrick. “I thought the presentation was excellent. As far as the body of the resolution, we haven’t seen a final wording. I felt there was further information that would be worked on so I’m unable to comment on it. But I’m in total agreement with the idea of it.”
Board Member Cathy Wildman said she wanted more information at the May 16 meeting about how the resolution would conform to existing federal laws. She also wanted clarity on how the resolution differed from a part of APS 2020 Shaping the Future Plan that stated the essential need to protect students safety and wellbeing, which she believed applies to all students including immigrants.