At 7:12 a.m. on Jan. 14, masked members of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were filmed leaving unmarked cars and detaining a male individual biking down Ramona Street in Ventura, Calif..
The arrest was made in proximity to a Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) school bus with elementary age students inside and occurred only 24 hours after the temporary detainment of a ten-year-old U.S. citizen on Jan. 13 in Oxnard Calif.. These arrests prompted the district to send parents of VUSD students an email and prerecorded phone call to explain the situation, stating the Ventura Police Department (VPD) was not involved and to introduce a plan to create temporary supervised and safe spaces on campuses. These safe spaces would open no later than 8 a.m., with location and start times decided by the principal of each school. VUSD families should have received the information about their child’s school supervision spaces on Jan. 14..
VUSD’s message reiterated the district protocol of law enforcement entering the school campus, stating that all visitors of any kind must check in through the office. Law enforcement must also provide a valid, signed judicial warrant or court order to enter the campus without risking a lockdown and potentially requiring the VPD to be called. The message also encouraged students to go to the front office if they need direction toward a safe place on campus…