I don’t think there is a simple right answer to how to teach in this moment.

The context that people are teaching in varies wildly school to school, and certainly teachers are under incredible scrutiny right now with folks who are watching very carefully what they are teaching. I think we have to be aware of that and recognize that how we talk about what is going on in this country right now with our students is incredibly high stakes for many people. At a minimum, my colleague Matt Kay writes a lot about making sure that you delineate between facts and opinions, and when you are sharing your opinion, you label it as such.

There is also the very real challenge right now that talking about what is going on in Minnesota, what is going on with ICE in many communities in this country is traumatizing, and an hour long discussion about the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in one classroom may not set the kids up for success the rest of the day, and it isn’t caring or kind to have a conversation that you can’t possibly finish only to send the kids along to whatever class they have next.

And yet… there is also the simple truth that many communities cannot avoid this conversation, because it very well may impact them. At a minimum, making sure students know their rights, be that because they or their families are at risk of being targeted by ICE, or because they are choosing to speak out or protest, feels like something we need to do. I genuinely cannot imagine how challenging it is to be a school leader in Minnesota right now, and for all of the “F around and find out” chatter about what would happen if ICE came to Philadelphia, I am genuinely terrified that my city is the next big target on the list, because as tough as Philadelphians can be, we’re not bulletproof, and the harm that could befall our city and our people if ICE decides to make a show of force is very real.

And that really hits on the heart of what I’ve been thinking about lately when it comes to being a school administrator in this moment. I worry about what would happen if ICE came to the door of our school. I worry about what would happen if a student came to me and told me that a relative had been taken in an ICE raid. I worry, when I look at the violence that is being inflicted upon protesters, what happens if my students encounter Border Patrol or ICE agents at a protest.

Above all else, I think we have an obligation to keep our students safe. So what can that look like?

If you are a school administrator, you have to have a plan for what would happen if you found out that ICE was in your neighborhood, or at your door. We need to urge our districts to have a plan to keep kids safe and not just comply in advance with extra-legal actions by ICE agents. The School District of Philadelphia has published its page on Immigrant Resources and on it is the Immigrant and Refugee Toolkit which has instructions for teachers and administrators about what to do if ICE shows up. And most importantly, it makes it very clear that schools are there to take care of the kids, and while there may not be much we can do if all of the proper procedures have been followed by an ICE agent, we have a legal obligation to make sure that all proper verification and documentation is in place before ever allowing an ICE agent to speak to a student – and because of the situation we’re in, I’ve made sure that the district’s Office of General Counsel number is on speed dial on my phone.

Beyond that, we can make sure that students know their rights when they are not with us. Whether that means making sure kids have access to the Red Cards created by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, or making sure that students have read through the ACLU’s excellent guide to protestor’s rights, educating kids on what it means to be a fully actualized citizen means making sure they know both their rights and their responsibilities as a citizen when they are not in our care.

We can create space for kids to talk about what they are seeing in our country right now. This doesn’t have to be us leading lessons in class about current events, we can set aside space in our classrooms at lunch, we can have discussion groups after school, and we can just listen when kids say they need to talk about what they see going on around them. And we don’t have to lecture them or debate them about immigration policy or the role of the federal government or any of these things, especially if they are living in a community that is affected by ICE. And most of all, when kids come to us with their concerns or their worries, we can let them know that to the degree that we are able, we will make sure that our schools are safe for them. No, we can no longer claim that schools are sanctuary spaces because our federal government no longer respects them as such, but we can let them know that we will do all we can to keep them safe.

Finally, what we teach, and how we teach it still matters. Throughout human history, dissent and resistance have been a fundamental part of human progress. We can teach kids how movements in both American and human history such as the civil rights movement or the anti-apartheid movement or various labor movements created change that made things better for people. We can teach kids how to analyze media and we can look at how propaganda has been used as a weapon of the powerful against the powerless throughout human history. We can teach kids to make sense of their world, and to make up their own minds about the world they want to live in, and how we can best achieve that. In many ways, I cannot think of a moment in recent history, where the ability to critically analyze our world and make choices and decisions where we can draw on history to make sense of the current moment has been as vital as it is right now. The literature we read, the history we study, the big ideas and themes that we tackle in our classrooms – those matter. And we must teach in such a way that allows kids the freedom and ability to make up their own minds about how they choose to show up in the world today.

But we can only do that if they know that – above all else – we will do what we can to simply keep them safe.

Some More Resources:

• Protecting Student Rights and Privacy from Wayne, MI
• Immigration Enforcement and Education from Virginia Commonwealth University
• The always excellent Zinn Education Project