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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Knox County Schools officials say the district will follow newly passed state legislation that puts state immigration policies in line with those of President Trump.
According to Superintendent Jon Rysewyk, the school system is obligated to follow state law, although they do not request any information from students regarding their immigration status.
“To date, there is nothing that has changed in our procedures or protocols,” Rysewyk told WBIR 10 News. “We don’t check on citizenship. That’s not something we do, we serve students when they come.”
One East Tennessee non-profit group that serves Spanish-speaking families in the area noted that some of the families they work with have expressed concern over sending their children to school.
Claudia Caballero, executive director of Centro Hispano of East Tennessee, said, “It’s not like a family is going to be completely undocumented. We have mixed-status families. We’ve heard of increased bullying cases, telling them to ‘go home’ when they are from here, born here.”
Immigration attorney Rachel Bonano says that individuals have “fear and panic, and not a lot of facts to back it up locally.”
She says there have been no known cases of ICE officials going into schools and randomly interrogating children on their immigration status.
