Dozens of Cordova students are on their way to the East Coast for an educational trip starting this week, but it hasn’t come without discussion of current events and national politics.
Cordova School District officials sent the group off to their Close Up trip on Tuesday after briefing chaperone leads, parents, and students on the district’s policy for handling potential with encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The students are scheduled to make various stops in New York City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
Schools Superintendent Alex Russin said the policy includes maintaining student confidentiality.
“Bottom line: Maintain student safety, be respectful with any type of law enforcement encounters, do not obstruct or interfere with any law enforcement agency,” Russin said.
The discussion surrounding potential encounters began months ago among district officials, as President Donald Trump ramped up ICE deployment in major U.S. cities.
“You don’t have to look far from the news to see the randomness by which some of these encounters are happening and it’s indiscriminate in terms of age and what you look like,” Russin said while discussing the trip back in November. “We just want to be prepared, we would rather be prepared in advance to know how to respond, should something happen.”
“I still hope they go, and I sure hope they don’t have ICE trouble,” former Board President Dave Glasen added during the November School Board meeting.
Just this week, national Border Tzar Tom Homan sent ICE agents to various airports across the country in an effort to aid in crowd control, since the current partial government shutdown has impacted the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). ICE agents had a confirmed presence at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty Airport on Monday.
The shutdown comes from Congress, as Republicans and Democrats continue to disagree on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which allocates money to ICE.
Cordova High School social studies teacher Emily Moody, who is one of the chaperones for the trip, confirmed with The Cordova Times that she and the other adults traveling with the kids have been prepped in case they end up interacting with agents.
“We will follow the district policy on ICE encounters,” she said.
Moody and the other chaperones – Alyssa Kleissler, Josh Pearson, and Signe Baumann – did not comment on whether or not they or the students have concerns about actually running into ICE agents.
The nonprofit civic education Close Up Foundation for decades has partnered with schools nationwide to provide students and educators with experiential programs at the capital city and in other places, primarily on the East Coast.
Twenty-five Cordova students are scheduled to participate in this year’s Close-Up trip, starting in New York City from March 25-29. They’ll then head south to Philadelphia on March 29 and end the trip in D.C. from March 29-April 3.
The group is set to return to Cordova on April 4.
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