ABOUT COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS: Community Connections is a lesson collection designed for adult learners and community colleges, with the goal of inspiring student civic action. This might be respectful debate or conversation about a local issue, planning a community event, or a creative project that helps connect local, national and global issues.
To use this lesson: First, watch the video and answer the questions below as a warm up. Next, choose one or more of the activities under "Take Action" that best fits your classroom. Or, use the segment above to inspire your own original classroom activities — the spirit of these lessons is to connect current events to actions that make your community a better place for everyone!
SUMMARY
The ICE operations in the Twin Cities are also affecting children who are caught up in the surge of personnel and detentions. A 5-year-old boy who was held by federal agents is a student in the Columbia Heights School District. Liz Landers discussed the incident with Superintendent Zena Stenvik.
News alternative: Check out recent segments from the News Hour, and choose the story you’re most interested in watching. You can make a Google doc copy of discussion questions that work for any of the stories here.
View the transcript of the story.
WARM-UP QUESTIONS
- Who is the boy described in this story, and what is his background?
- What happened to Liam, according to reports?
- Where was Liam transferred by immigration officers?
- How have federal immigration officers responded to concern about Liam?
- Why does Zena Stenvik say that the federal government's version of events is misleading?
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
- In this interview, Zena Stenvik says that there is "nothing normal about our daily lives at this point." What sort of examples does she provide? How do you think the difficulties she described are impacting the learning environment for students?
- How do you think schools can best be protected from the impacts of federal immigration enforcement actions?
Media literacy: Why do you think News Hour producers chose to interview a school superintendent? Who else do you think they might have interviewed about immigration agents in schools?
TAKE ACTION
What are some ways you can help neighbors who are vulnerable because of federal immigration or law enforcement activity?
Use this activity to plan a community event that is open to the public and would help prepare them for federal agents in their communities.
You can also use this activity to set up a class debate about what you think are the best ways to protect vulnerable members of your community.
You might also want to use this activity to set up a translation clinic focused on immigrants in your community.
Read more about the case of five-year-old Liam's detainment in the AP article, "Federal officers detain 5-year-old boy who a Minnesota school official says was used as 'bait'"
After reading the article, discuss as a class —
- Based on the description of events in the article, do you think it's fair to characterize the actions of federal officers as using Liam as "bait"? Why or why not?
- Why do you think federal agents are using tactics such as these if the goal as stated is to deport the "worst of the worst" criminals?
This project was funded under the 2024 Leonore Annenberg Civic Mission of the Nation Initiative, sponsored by the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics. LAIC is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
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