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Superintendent Nikolai Vitti (File photo)
Detroit Public Schools Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said Thursday that immigration officials are launching an “attack” on undocumented immigrants in the city in ways that are “unfathomable,” a “distraction,” and “un-American” — and that it is interfering with children coming to school, the Detroit News reports.
At his annual State of the Schools address at Renaissance High School on Thursday, Vitti sharply criticized the Trump administration’s tactics, saying, “the way in which this policy is being implemented with ICE is unfathomable, it’s a distraction. It’s hurtful to our communities and our children, and we have to find individual ways to address this issue.”
After the speech, he said this about the impact on school attendance:
"Especially in southwest Detroit and other pockets of high-immigrant communities, definitely it's having an impact... I know that families are second guessing, walking the children to school, thinking about when they leave, monitoring the neighborhood about if ice is there. So absolutely it is impacting student attendance. It did last year, starting in January, and you know, we're still seeing that trend."
