U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) suffered backlash this spring after it detained more than 300 workers in raids in Massachusetts and left hundreds of children without caretakers at the end of the school day. ICE has continued to execute similar raids across the country, on a smaller scale.

The principal of Heritage Hill told the Cincinnati Enquirer that on the day that ICE detained 161 workers at the Koch Foods poultry-packing plant in Fairfield, Ohio, students had yet to fill out emergency contact information that would indicate to teachers which students may had parents swept up in the raid. Teachers gently questioned students and followed school buses home in the evening to ensure each child was met by a relative. About 20 students did not return to school the next day.

Some parents said they were unsure if their child would return to school; they didn't feel safe going home, said [Sonia] Velez Rodriquez [a parent liaison at the school].

 

"They took the most important things and they were gone," she said.

The Enquirer tells the poignant story of how the staff of Heritage Hill worked together to protect their students and how the school has been coping since the raid.