A discussion about immigration and education held Sept. 23 had to vie for attention with Cambridge groups linked to the issues.
The book talk and panel, “Can we meet the moment? Immigrant students + our public schools,” drew criticism beforehand that no current immigrant families were among the speakers, and the school officials who were involved were assaulted by a labor group as hypocrites.
The panel was moderated by former School Committee candidate Eugenia Schraa Huh and featured superintendent David Murphy, vice mayor Burhan Azeem and committee member Richard Harding, as well as Jessica Lander, history and civics teacher to recent immigrant students at Lowell High School and author of “Making Americans: Stories of Historic Struggles, New Ideas, and Inspiration in Immigrant Education.” The book details past and present stories of education for immigrant students, including stories from Lander’s own student’s experiences. Although advertised as a book talk, Lander served more as an expert sharing background information and organizing the audience into small groups.
The event held at the Cambridge Main Library featured an overview of national immigration policy by Lander and overviews of city and school policy by Azeem, Murphy and Harding. The fear that immigrant students face nationally, with some choosing not to come to school, was a focus.
“It is affecting how some of our students perceive their place in the community. And because of that, putting aside the operational side, there’s a need to double down on and be particularly vigilant about making sure each individual school community feels like an educational home to the students in our care,” Murphy said.
Lander encouraged each audience member and panelist to turn to the person next to them and share their own immigrant story. Finally, the audience was divided into three groups: “What’s the impact? Where are the gaps? What’s working? What do we need from schools/the greater community?” The groups discussed among themselves, and wrote answers on the posters. It wasn’t made clear what action follow from the collection of community opinions.
Families Action Network criticism
Online discourse about the lack of immigrant families involvement began before the event from the Cambridge Families Action Network, founded during the 2024-2025 school year by families who felt unrepresented in other caregiver groups. It provides mutual aid to the community and hosts meetings for caregivers and says it is “a family-led grassroots organization working to advance equity, protect civil rights and ensure equal access for all children and families in Cambridge.”
The group called out the event’s organizers on social media, saying “You can’t understand a family’s experience from a conference table they were never seated at. … When an institution invites people with professional or institutional authority to represent a marginalized community while leaving members of that community out of the conversation, it reinforces the very power structure that determines whose knowledge is considered legitimate in the first place.”
A representative for the event opened the panel with an explanation – one with an echo of the student choice to avoid schools when they feel vulnerable: “We recognize that having very many voices on the panel would have strengthened this discussion. However, in light of the current climate, we felt there were serious risks in inviting immigrants.”
Cambridge Education Association action
Outside the event, Cambridge Education Association members handed out flyers saying Murphy and Harding “have rejected proposed contract language that would protect immigrant students and staff in accordance with the Protect Act.” The state law enacted in August prohibits warrantless federal immigration enforcement on school grounds and calls for school committees to write an “emergency response plan” for encounters with ICE and other civil law enforcement.
There have been 17 negotiation sessions so far between the district and the Cambridge Education Association as the group’s five units seek new contract language.
Nicholas Watter, a Cambridge Rindge and Latin School teacher and union member, told CSI that “one of the things we’re trying to do is actually get language that protects teachers, educators, staff, families, caregivers and, most importantly, students, and to have it actually written in our contract, so we can make sure this Protect Act is actually going to be enforced.”
“Because right now, we’ve heard a lot of lip service. And thus far, the School Committee has just outright refused [the proposed language]. It’s been very disheartening,” Watter said.
Harding called the flyer “another clear example” of the CEA not trying to compromise and “have a contract that represents all parties fairly.”
While he has voted in support of similar measures on the committee, “there are some things that we just cannot control that shouldn’t be in a contract,” Harding said.