Lancaster ISD student claims teacher threatened him with deportation
LANCASTER, Texas - A ninth-grader in Lancaster ISD claims a school employee threatened to deport him.
The boys’ family, other parents and activists attended Thursday’s school board meeting. They are demanding the employee at Barack and Michelle Obama 9th Grade Center be fired.
The district confirms it's investigating the allegations.
Some parents went to the board meeting solely to voice their concern about a student's claim that a teacher made deportation threats to a Hispanic student this week.
The incident under investigation happened Tuesday. The mother of a 14-year-old student says her son was placed in in-school-suspension because of a dress code violation. She says school leaders she met with told her the boy was in ISS by mistake after being sent to the front office.
According to the boy’s mother, the teacher overseeing ISS took the student out of the classroom after he said something the teacher considered disrespectful. They say the teacher questioned the citizenship of his Hispanic parents and talked about deportation.
The mother says the teacher presented a Department of Homeland Security coin that said ICE on it. She says she took pictures of it during a meeting with school administrators. She did not want her face shown or named used when FOX 4 talked to her.
“Basically threatening him. My son felt threatened. He was in shock and basically said nothing after that,” she said. “It should not be tolerated. And if they keep him in the school, that lets me know where Lancaster ISD stands.”
The school district says it is investigating the allegations and it placed the teacher on administrative leave.
“Lancaster ISD does not support nor will we tolerate behavior that promotes division,” the district said in a statement. “Our district takes pride in being an inclusive district that puts students first regardless of their background.”
Multiple people spoke at the meeting calling for the staff member to be terminated. District leaders made no further comment at Thursday’s board meeting.