Students in the Minneapolis and Columbia Heights districts are returning to in-person classes this week after many chose to stay home as U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents flooded the region at the start of the year.
The toll of the surge on children, families, schools and teachers is something some school leaders say they are still struggling to understand.
“There's still a heightened alert or anxiousness, but it's certainly not like it was in January, February, for which we are relieved,” said Kristen Stuenkel, communications director in the Columbia Heights school district. “We are very concerned about what this means for the families that have established themselves here.”
Many metro-area districts began offering temporary virtual learning options in January after armed Border Patrol agents came on the grounds of a Minneapolis high school, tackled students and staff and released pepper spray during dismissal.
School leaders in Minneapolis, the state’s fourth largest district, had planned to end the temporary virtual option in February but decided to extend it through April.
In St. Paul, the state’s second-largest district, some 7,000 students enrolled in online learning during the peak of Operation Metro Surge. The district ended its temporary virtual option in mid-March. Volunteer school patrols, which community members organized to keep children safe during arrival and dismissal, also ended in early April.
The north suburban Fridley school district is still offering online options to families, but leaders there say most of the 462 students who were too afraid to attend classes in person are now back at school.
Still, more than 70 students have unenrolled from classes altogether, and many families still face food insecurity and financial crises due to the disruptions caused by the surge.
“Step by step we are coming back,” Brenda Lewis, the Fridley superintendent, told MPR. Many families, though, still have “significant needs” from food to rental and utility assistance.
Seventy-two children enrolled in December in Fridley schools are no longer attending, she added.
Teachers see signs of trauma as kids return
Hundreds of students in the Columbia Heights Public Schools hid in their homes during the surge of federal agents and took advantage of online learning. The district will end that option for secondary students this week. Primary school students have already been returning to in-person learning.
School leaders are expecting students to need time and help to adjust to in-person learning, said Stuenkel, the district spokesperson.
“For our students, it was safest to stay inside and in some cases, with blankets on the windows,” Stuenkel said. “We've had individuals picked up when they were out shoveling snow on their sidewalks or taking their trash out.”
The district is working with the Washburn Center for Children, a community-based mental health organization, to support students as they return to classes.
Teachers are noticing what they believe may be signs of trauma in the children they work with, as well as worry over missing family members who were detained, Stuenkel said.
“We are seeing nervousness, anxiety about being apart from their parents,” she added. “Some of the students fear that — will their parents be there when they come back (home)?”
Seven students from Columbia Heights, including 5-year-old Liam Ramos, were taken by federal agents during the surge. Stuenkel said all but one of those students has returned to Minnesota. One student decided to return to her home country of Ecuador with her mother after spending time in the Dilley Detention Center in Texas.
Still, there are more than 100 students who left the school during the surge and have not yet returned.
The district is worried more will leave at the end of the school year either because they’re afraid to stay or because the government denies their asylum claims, Stuenkel said.
“It's not like when people got out of detention or once ICE left, that all was well again,” Stuenkel added.
