Alexa Blasdell is reportedly furious that teachers at Dundee Middle School endangered her 11-year-old son, Richard Harley, who has a federally protected Individualized Education Program (IEP).
The district claims it took "deliberate, proactive steps to ensure parents were informed and the campus remained secure" around the student-organized anti-ICE protest on February 17, but Blasdell asserts she was not notified until her lost child called her from the side of the road.
"My kid is supposed to be safe at school," she said. "Why didn't I get a notification that he was tardy or absent for that matter?"
Harley, who did not understand what the protest was about, was able to leave his middle school campus without supervision or parental authorization. The special needs student fell behind the group and got separated from the others.
His mother says he was found miles from the school, dangerously close to a busy intersection.
"They were supposed to stay … by the school, but they did the exact opposite," Harley told ABC7 News. "I was the last one, so I was all alone."
The mainstream media maintains the walkouts from schools across the country are student-led, but according to multiple social media posts, teachers are widely involved in pushing the protests.
Washington Times columnist Robert Knight says middle schoolers should be thinking about recess, baseball, and homework – not leftist dogmas.
"They shouldn't be dragged into adult controversies, like the deportation issue with ICE," he submits.
The educators who insist on covering current affairs in the classroom should at least be truthful about them.
In the case of ICE, Knight points out that agents are removing dangerous criminals from communities and rescuing children who are being trafficked.
Meanwhile, as Richard Harley is afraid to return to Dundee Middle School, the columnist thinks the 11-year-old and his family have "great grounds for a lawsuit."
