VIDE Announces Task Force To Support Students Amid Immigration Enforcement Anxiety

Leadership from the Virgin Islands Education Department told lawmakers on the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee Wednesday that policies set by the Trump administration have “direct implications for our public education system, as many undocumented students are currently enrolled in our schools.”

St. Croix Deputy Superintendent Victor Somme III said hard-line immigration policies at the federal level — and an increase in enforcement activities by Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have placed “significant” pressure on immigrant communities. Reports of visits to territory schools by immigration agents circulated last week, though a Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson told the Source Tuesday that no enforcement actions had taken place in U.S. Virgin Islands schools.

“Despite the political debates surrounding immigration, one undeniable legal and moral obligation remains,” Somme said. “All children, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to a free public education.”

That precedent dates back to the 1982 court case Plyler v. Doe when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a state cannot prevent the children of undocumented immigrants from attending public schools. Somme said the V.I. Education Department “stands firmly behind this legal precedent and remains fully committed to educating every child who walks through our doors.”

“We do not, and will not, inquire about a student’s immigration status, nor will we allow external pressures to dictate who is entitled to an education,” he said.

Noting a Jan. 29 directive issued by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. stating that government employees and educators are not required to assist federal immigration authorities unless mandated by law, Somme said the Education Department has created a task force to protect undocumented students’ right to learn and shared a guidance document with school administrators, staff, bus drivers and school professional unions.

Lawmakers, including Sen. Marise James, who chaired the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee during the 35th Legislature, and freshman Sen. Hubert Fredericks pointed out that the specter of immigration enforcement threatened to inflict even more learning loss on a group of students who have already weathered two massive disruptions to their schooling.

“So clearly, clearly we had the storm loss, we had the COVID loss — pandemic loss — and now we’re going to have the ICE loss,” Fredericks said. “These losses will be reflected in the forthcoming numbers because these students will not be coming to school, as we have already experienced.”

Education Commissioner Dionne Wells-Hedrington said the newly created task force is working on “bridging that gap” for affected students.

“My — an additional concern that we have is them being able to focus,” she said. “They may be coming to school, but focusing and worrying about whether your mother or father could be deported still is an issue — that social-emotional piece — and those coordinators play an intricate role there as well.”

Wells-Hedrington added that it’s not only students who are worried. The school system’s international teachers have also expressed concern that they could be subject to deportation.

Wednesday’s testimony from Education leadership also included an analysis of student test scores for the 2023-2024 academic year. Third- through eighth-grade students, high school sophomores and high school juniors were tested using the Smarter Balanced assessment system.

According to the Education Department, 17.2 percent of tested students achieved grade-level proficiency in English Language Arts, compared to 13.1 percent last year. Just over 6 percent exceeded standards, compared to 4 percent last year.

In math, 6.3 percent achieved proficiency — up from 4.1 percent last year — and 21.3 percent of students demonstrated proficiency in science.

Lawmakers found plenty else to chew on, and several were plainly exasperated by the recent theft of two industrial stoves, stove hoods, an ice machine, tiles and tiling equipment from the Eulalie Rivera Elementary School.

“Equipment arrives on Saturday, we experience thefts on Sunday,” Wells-Hedrington said, urging people with information to come forward. The incident was far from the first large-scale theft from a St. Croix school. In July 2023, more than a hundred solar panels purchased with federal funds were stolen from the St. Croix Educational Complex.

Senate Majority Leader Kurt Vialet, who chairs the Senate Education and Workforce Development Committee, opened questioning by asking whether any doors or locks at Eulalie Rivera had been broken.

“I am putting this on the record because we’re having a lot of these types of incidents that clearly speak to it being inside jobs, that clearly speak to it being individuals who have access,” he said. “And at some point, we have to hold everybody responsible.”

Sen. Novelle Francis Jr. said he was “seriously considering” moving legislation to double the penalties for such crimes.

“It does a disservice to our community and again, sets the students way back,” he said. “And that’s unacceptable.”

Lawmakers took aim at maintenance of the territory’s aging school facilities and plans to build new schools during the second block of Wednesday’s meeting.