Alan Gomez
Gannett Newspapers
PHOENIX, Az. — Arizona’s immigration law that goes into effect next month has some school and law enforcement officials wondering whether students being sent to detention face the possibility of being deported.
There is no clear line that will determine when school resource officers (SRO) -- police officers or sheriff’s deputies assigned to work in schools -- can investigate a student’s immigration status under the new law.
The law requires an officer to determine a person’s immigration status if they are stopped, detained or arrested and there is “reasonable suspicion” they are in the U.S. illegally.
Many school officials agree that a student who brings a gun to school, is caught with drugs, threatens the life of a teacher or is involved in gang activity is committing a serious crime and can have their immigration status checked by police.
“If somebody does something bad and gets arrested on campus, it’s out of our hands,” said Craig Pletenik, spokesman for the Phoenix Union High School District.
Issues such as school fights and petty thefts are less clear.
Rusty Taylor, principal of Valley Union High School in Elfrida, 35 miles from the Mexican border, said he’s required to call in police if blood is drawn during a fight.
Lt. Tamatha Villar, who commands the SRO program for the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, said her district usually handles fights in-house, but that can change if a parent wants to press charges.
“Obviously, if a parent comes in after the fact and says, ‘I want this other student arrested,’ at that point, the school doesn’t have a choice any longer,” Villar said.
Officials at the Phoenix Union High School District, where 78% of the 25,000 students are Hispanic, are telling students and parents that school resource officers won’t wander the halls checking immigration or citizenship papers.
“We’re doing that to put the community at ease, so the students and parents don’t think they’ll come to school and be turned over” to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Pletenik said.
Taylor has told his students that he does not have a duty to report students he suspects of being here illegally. He’s not sure what to tell them about police in the school.
“Once I invite that officer into my school and he suspects something, does he have the authority to ask?” Taylor said. “It’s a very good question. I guess theoretically they could.”
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board is developing training for the state’s 16,000 law enforcement officers to prepare them for July 29, when the law goes into effect. Executive Director Lyle Mann said the training will not cover the specifics of handling students and the role of school resource officers.
“We decided that unique situations such as SRO is too problematic and the issues too specific (to be) included in a statewide training program,” Mann said in an e-mail.
The state Department of Education has also not provided any guidelines. “It’s the school’s decision on how they handle their school resource officers,” said spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico.
Sgt. Joe Favazzo of the Chandler Police Department said it’s frustrating to address the issue without guidance from the state.
“We have no idea,” he said. “I think the SRO and school administrators are going to have to work together and come up with something.”
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