 Good evening and thank you for joining us. My name is Brianna Juarez. I'm a third grade math teacher in San Antonio ISD. I also serve on the regional strategy team for San Antonio Rising and Solidarity for Equity, or SA RIDE. SA RIDE is a community organizing group that works to build power for educational equity in San Antonio through meaningful dialogue, relationships, and collective action. Throughout the past year, we have been working with our community, our teachers, the chief of police, Chief Corriez, and the San Antonio Alliance to bring full transparency to the community about how SA ISD PD will conduct itself under SB 4. Today, we're celebrating this collaboration's efforts to support all students, including those that are undocumented. With collaborations like these, between committed organizations and district leaders, we hope to further push and strengthen SA ISD's commitments made in the resolution passed on February of 2017. That states, among other things, the district will ensure students and guardians are directed to all available resources for assistance in understanding and exercising their rights under applicable laws. Following through with this commitment with the production of the Police and Community Handbook is an important first step in building and maintaining community trust. There's still so much work to be done for the educational equity that our students deserve. SA RISE is not stopping here. We have district leaders and community members who will share a bit more about what this means for our district. Please join me in welcoming SA ISD Board of Trustees President, Patty Radall. Thank you very much, Bree. Well, first of all, we thank the media for showing up and being here with us. We thank the other judges that are supporting and so concerned about this issue. This is a very important issue to SA ISD and we wanna thank SA RISE for appreciating with the collaboration to address this and come up with a strong booklet. We thank our own chief for working with SA RISE and developing that booklet. This is a very important issue to us and out of everything that's in that booklet, I think the thing we want people to hear so much is that SB 4 does not apply to school districts and our chief has the ability to be able to tell his officers not to ask the status of immigration or citizenship and he will and he does. And so that's very important for our families to understand that it is not the same relationship as it is with the San Antonio Police Department. School districts do not fall under SB 4 and we are grateful for the spirit of our own chief, the spirit of the community leaders who know that this is such an important issue. Muchas gracias SA RISE for to follow and as a student. Muchas gracias para tu atención a nuestros familia y nuestros estudiantes con estas familias y nuestros estudiantes. And I want to go ahead and am I introducing you, Pedro? So I am also so grateful that we have a superintendent who has experienced the challenges of immigration and knows what the challenges of immigration can do to our families, understands the whole culture that comes to our families of fear when they are already running from fear in many of them and to be in such a situation where our life can get worse if we don't have protections that keep our children on track for their educational opportunity. So superintendent Martinez. Good afternoon everyone. And so first of all, somebody born in Mexico that came to this country when I was turning six years old. I know firsthand the challenges that our movement family space and one of the things that I'm very proud of is not only our board who has taken leadership on this issue but also our chief and it is just the beginning. I mean, I think we want to be clear with that. But first of all, we are open to learning. We're open to, you know, this is not our expertise. In fact, I will say right now, we want the help. We want experts to be able to come. Our goal is to open up our buildings and to ensure that parents have feel that not only that their children are safe but that they're safe and that they can be knowledge about how to address these very challenging issues. I will say this, we're not in a very friendly state when it comes to immigrants. And I think it's very sad. I'm hopeful we're time that that might change but the reality right now it is not, it is not a friendly state toward immigrants. And so for us, I want our district to take a leadership role. But I will tell you the one thing that I also would ask the community is is not only look at this issue around immigration rights and what's happening with ICE and all those activities. I also want you to want us to be looking at the bigger picture of making sure these children get an education. So whenever I talk to any of our students that are in this situation, the first thing I let them know is that you have to graduate from high school and you have to go to college because no matter what happened, whether you're not a big proponent of getting a fix for DACA, I think it's shameful that that hasn't been addressed but what we can and my wife and I, we both personally contribute to different organizations that are helping DACA students. We do that in our own personal life. We need to make sure that our students know that they cannot give up. My biggest fear besides what's happening with ICE and other activities is that many of our children, they lose hope. I'll give you an example. So we have students right now that are not sure whether to fill out financial aid force. Last year we had a record note before the election of record number of students that were filling out alternative financial aid forms as part of DACA. Now they're worried. And so we're having our counselors put on an event specifically for students that, and we open that to everybody but it's sort of our dreamer event around having children, have the information that there's universities that will give full right scholarships. There are local institutions now that can help our children. And so the one thing I ask of the community is help us to ensure these children do not lose any hope because regardless of what happens with immigration laws, if they had graduated from high school, if they go to college, nobody can take that away from them. So again, I want to thank our board president and I'm going to ask the chief girl not to come up. He is an amazing leader. He's been in our district I think just a little bit over a year now. He has completely changed the culture of our police department. One of the things I asked of him is I wanted our police department to be seen as individuals that were not only role model for our children, that were protectors of our children's safety. And I think this work, which is just the beginning, is also a step in the right direction to know that, I want them to see our police department as being on their side, not having to fear for them for what could happen with current immigration issues. Good afternoon. First of all, I'd like to thank SA Wright. I personally thank you for your leadership and anyone else who contributed to this handbook, like the superintendent stated, it is the first step of going forward in a positive manner and we are open to any other input that anyone else may have to improve this handbook. I really appreciate the compassion that SA Wright and others have in humanity. And I really, really am compassionate about it and their hard work in regards to mean the voice for others. Others who can't or don't have that voice and mainly being the voice for and doing the right thing for the common good of our immigration families that we have. I really do, I am very compassionate of what we do with police. Here's our philosophy real quick, like so everyone can know, we're here to shine a positive light on everyone we come in contact with. Now we would treat everyone with respect, with dignity, with protection and most importantly as a human being and not based on what they look like or what they wear. That is our philosophy. And we wanna be that shiny light and that resource that anyone can come to us and speak to us without the fear of being deported. You know, our immigrant families here play a big role in our community itself. Again and once again, we like to be that resource for them when they're in need. And I encourage everyone to ask the question because I keep on asking me the same question is what are we doing or what can we do for the non-documenting people to make their lives better and hopefully get documented? What are we actually doing? We as police, I assure you, are doing our best to maintain a safe and secure environment for all. For all. And I name you with, you see something, say something. Thank you. The speaker is an SISD graduate, Maria Rocha. Together today, we have to remind ourselves how far we have come as a district, as a community and as a city. My educational years at SISD include attending Wilson Elementary, one year middle school and graduate from Edison High School in 2005. Yes, I recall derocatory terms used towards me and others, words like wetback, mojado and illegal. Aside from the negative, I also recall the positive and the immense support from teachers, counselors and administrators who made me feel safe. Same thing is a key element. We must provide our students on a daily basis. How can one function fearful? Fear about themselves, but most importantly, will I go home to my family today? That was a question I often ask myself, will I be able to go home to my parents knowing that they drive without a state-issued ID even up to this day? The work you as allies and advocates started with the urgency of now. The work of SARISE initiated with past and present educators doing exactly what they stand for, San Antonians, rising in solidarity for equity, especially under our current political climate. The handle brought forth a sense of security our undocumented students deserve. We need to be insured and promised that our staff members are well-equipped and trained to take action. This includes mandatory trainings and information about the opportunity to furthering their education our most vulnerable students have in our state of Texas. I am a living product of that. I graduated with my bachelor's in 2012 from UTSA and I'm currently pursuing my master's degree in educational leadership. I am fortunate to have obtained DACA, but not everyone was able to obtain such a privilege due to certain requirements or simply because they feared applying. Our victory speaks for many, even at this first step. Let us all continue to advocate for all students and prove to them que sí se puede. Sabemos que este paso es el primer paso de muchos que están por venir. Nuestra comunidad se merece esto y más sabiendo el temor que nos enfrentamos día a día. Gracias a SARISE, al distrito y a nuestra comunidad por reconocer esta gran necesidad y este gran triunfo. Gracias. Y Teacher Gerardo Villegas. Good afternoon. My name is Gerardo Villegas. I have a product by SAISE as well. I'm an immigrant and I'm currently a teacher in this district. So I've been proud of this district proudly since 2001 when I came to the United States in a role that helps in elementary until I graduated from Fox Tech High School in 2012. SAISE, as far as I can remember, was my home safe haven throughout those years. It is where I feel welcome and continue to be inspired every single day by my own students today. The conversation that we are having today is extremely important because we service that community whether we wanna admit it or not and this community has come under fire by many policies not just as before but federal policies that are gonna have even further effects down the line. So it's going to take for us through our own devices to champion the students and families in our immigrant community. So I think of like myself, even though I feel like I have some kind of power within just having some kind of an education and being in the classroom and being a role model to my students. I now have that responsibility through my own device to speak and that's why I'm here today. Immigrants are at the heart of some of our most precious schools and that is like completely a fact. Immigrants, they, oh, I'm sorry. There, I'm happy that these guidelines are being set and I challenge you guys to continue to do more. I can attest to how the advocacy of my teachers and the schools attribute to the success of students like myself. Your words, your actions and inactions have so much power and I'll forever feel committed to this district. Here is where countless of teachers advocated for me, no in my own situation and I was pushed to seek opportunities beyond what limits us as immigrants because of them I stand here today and teach you math. So I'm, I'm very proud of this, I speak of everything that I'm doing to protect this community of immigrants. I hope that this will be the beginning of what we're going to do and what we're going to say. As a teacher, I, in this district, I feel the responsibility to be a liberator of the voices of my students and the first thing that I do as a teacher is to look for ways that my students feel good in my class and this is one of the ways that I can do it. I'm Essay Rice, Regional Strategy Team member, Mary Hokea. Thank you for joining us today. I'm going to start by saying thank you for all of the work that you've done throughout the work that you remind us of the importance of continuing to develop trust between district police and the community. Thank you to SAISD for the commitment to all students and families. This work does not end here. Supporting all students in SAISD is a priority and it takes all of us working together and offering solutions. So let's continue working together to create ever better educational outcomes for our students. Please join us in the next conversation that we have with the community. Thank you to SAISD for the commitment to all students and families. This work does not end here. Supporting all students in SAISD is a priority and it takes all of us working together and offering solutions. We will continue to work together to create even better solutions for education and for our children. Please join us in the next conversation communicate ... Please join us in the next conversation in