It came as no surprise to me when the Trump administration announced that schools would no longer be shielded from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents entering to arrest immigrants. It was just the latest sign of what I have witnessed firsthand as a public school educator for 21 years: the deterioration of our nation’s public schools as a safe haven for children, young adults and families.
I can remember the first time I was afraid to go to school. I was a senior at suburban Lockport High School, and I was about a month away from graduating. The day before, two seniors at Columbine High School in Colorado walked into their high school armed with guns, killed 12 of their peers and one teacher, and then died by suicide.
I watched the news of Columbine with my parents as the media talked about the killers being in a “trench coat mafia.” I knew some kids who wore trench coats to school, I told my parents. The connection, though unfounded, scared me enough that my parents called the school. The school assured us that we were safe, that it was a faraway tragedy, that it wouldn’t happen again.
Since Columbine, there have been more than 400 school shootings, according to data compiled by the Washington Post. Politicians have failed to pass comprehensive gun law reform that would help keep our schools safe. Instead, we lead our kids through lockdown drills year after year, hoping it will save lives if another shooting occurs.
After college, I began my high school teaching career on the South Side of Chicago as an English teacher in the Roseland and Pullman communities. On my first day as a Chicago Public Schools teacher, our principal projected an abysmal ACT test score, 14.6, onto a screen. He told us loud and clear that we were a school on probation, and that if our scores didn’t improve, CPS could close our school.
As a white, middle-class kid attending predominantly white schools in the suburbs, I had never heard of schools closing. The expectation was that a public school would be there, an integral part of the community. Yet, a decade after I became a CPS teacher, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel decided to close 50 Chicago schools in one fell swoop in 2013. It was a huge blow to places, mostly struggling Black communities, where many kids and families felt the safest: their local school.
By juxtaposing school shootings and school closings, I don’t mean to diminish the tragic loss of so many lives by children, teens and sometimes teachers. My intent is to point out that the mirage of the American school as a safe haven has become false, because our politicians refuse to tighten gun laws or enact policies that would preserve schools as “second homes” for vulnerable children.
And now, President Donald Trump has given the okay to send ICE into schools (and churches) to detain and deport students and families.
For the last 13 years, I have taught amazing students, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, who rode atop freight trains to seek asylum, taught themselves English, and eventually graduated at the top of their class. I have taught Ukrainian immigrants, fleeing death and destruction from Russia’s invasion, who watch news about the war on their phones as they study to keep their grades up. I’m certain I’ve taught countless undocumented students, though I have no way of knowing because schools don’t have citizenship information.
But whether ICE actually makes it to the schoolhouse door or not, Trump has further clouded the image of schools as safe havens. Some students are now even afraid to attend, and parents fear transporting them there, not wanting to risk their livelihoods on a ride to school.
Political action and inaction have upended the view of schools as safe, secure, and welcoming spaces. Who will fight to change that?
History has shown us that education reform that values students and teachers has come from teachers’ unions. Many teachers’ unions, even in red states, united during the first Trump presidency for greater pay and benefits. Teachers’ unions must add gun violence, school closures, and deportations to our dockets. But it can’t end at the unions. Policymakers and political leaders, we need you to take the lead and fight against the further destruction of our nation’s schools.
Our children deserve our schools to be the safe spaces we experienced in this country, not so long ago.
Gina Caneva, Ph.D., is the library media specialist for a suburban Chicago public high school and is National Board Certified. Follow her on BlueSky @ginacaneva.bsky.social
The views and opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Chicago Sun-Times or any of its affiliates.
The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.
Get Opinions content delivered to your inbox.