Polk County Public Schools issued a response on rumors in the community that ICE is detaining students and visiting local schools.
“PCPS has been made aware of recent rumors that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been visiting our schools, and detaining students,” a social media states. “We’d like to take a moment to clear the air: To date, there have been NO incidents with ICE on any PCPS campus. ICE agents have not been visiting our schools, and no students or staff have been detained.”
If law enforcement does visit a school with a valid ID and legal documents that explain their purpose, then the Central Florida school system said it must follow the law.
“As a public school system, PCPS follows all state and federal laws, and will continue to do so. We have procedures in place that require any law enforcement representative to have valid ID and legal documents, as part of any visit or action that might be conducted in our schools,” the PCPS post continued.
However, Polk County Public Schools wants to make it clear that ICE has not been on local school campuses.
“But again, it’s simply not true that ICE has been present on our campuses. We wanted to address this because we’ve seen local posts on social media, and know that concerned parents have been reaching out to schools.
“As always, we want to make sure our community has accurate information. Thank you.”
