'Safe Zones': LAUSD board says students will be safe from ICE on campuses

(FOX 11) - Dr. George McKenna, a Los Angeles Unified School District board member, reflected Tuesday on being a child in the South and all the things he couldn't do.

"I was segregated, drank out of colored water fountains, rode in the back of a bus, went to segregated schools," he said.

Now, as a school board member, he was glad to cast a vote for a resolution to protect children in the LA Unified School District that feel fearful. The passed resolution, among other things, enhances the "safe zones" approved by the board last February.

It sets up a "day of understanding" across the district for conversation and assistance any student may want.

As they prepared to vote, LAUSD Board President Steve Zimmer asked board members to think of their students as if they were their own children.

"What would we do if our own child was scared? We would make sure they knew they were loved," Zimmer said. "We would make sure they knew they were safe."

Outside of the meeting, Zimmer told FOX 11 the resolution is to make students feel safe, but also is a strong political statement.

"We, like the LAPD, are not going to directly cooperate with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) services. ICE agents are not going to go into schools and take kids out of class, target parents. Our schools are safe zones."

The resolution to make all students in the LA Unified School District feel safe was approved unanimously.

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