Hamilton County: Raid put schools in a bind

The arrests last week of Pilgrim’s Pride workers suspected of being illegal immigrants couldn’t have come at a worse time for local school administrators.

The sweep, in which 100 were arrested, came while first- through eighth-grade students in Hamilton County Schools were taking the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests.

“The law enforcement officials have to do what they have to do, but for us it was ill-timed,” Superintendent Jim Scales said during test week. “We need those kids in school as calm and comfortable as they can be.”

Test results from the statewide reading, math, science and social studies exams are the No Child Left Behind standard in Tennessee, which determines which schools the state puts on its high-priority list. Ninety-five percent of students in each school must take the tests in order for them to count.

The potential impact could have been felt systemwide but may have been especially great at East Side Elementary, where 43 percent of the students are Hispanic. The school is an English as a Second Language center, located about two miles from Pilgrim’s Pride.

“I’m sure children who were in school of all ages last week — Hispanic kids — had real worries while being in school of what might happen at home. That’s just human nature,” said Mike Feely, director of the St. Andrews Center, a resource for Chattanooga’s multicultural communities.

“Something like a raid must have an impact on students, to be in school all day wondering if mom and dad are going to come back,” he added.

According to officials with the Tennessee Department of Education, schools can petition to have certain test scores deleted in the case of extenuating circumstances such as teacher misconduct or if the wrong test was given. But state law says the test scores of students “upset about external events” should be processed normally.

But East Side Principal Emily Baker said it was business as usual on Thursday, despite Wednesday’s sweep. The events had absolutely no effect on the school or the students taking the tests, she said.

Only students who are English Language Learners even knew what was happening, she said.

“Everything was quiet, everything was fine,” she said.

Four students were absent Thursday, she said, but they were all kindergartners who do not take TCAP tests.

Many community agencies came together to give assistance to students, Ms. Baker said, but the only thing teachers and administrators offered was a listening ear.

“If (students) needed to talk to us, we were there to listen, but we didn’t ask if their parent was picked up or anything like that,” she said.

The arrests Wednesday caused concern throughout the Hispanic community, said Marisol Jimenez, an English as a Second Language teacher at East Side and a board member at La Paz de Dios, a nonprofit organization that works to integrate Hispanics into the local community.

In general, Chattanooga’s entire Hispanic community was affected because “we know families were separated and whenever families are separated it makes us all sad,” she said. What happens in the community affects children in school, she added.

“Children may not be able to understand the situation and the reason why some people were taken, and this caused added fear and anxiety for many,” she said.