a student deported and a summer of raids leave a school reeling

September 29, 2025. Originally published in EdSource.

Top Takeaways

• Students endured a summer of intense immigration raids, often staying indoors to avoid being detained despite having legal status.

• Research shows immigration raids increase stress and anxiety beyond the people directly impacted.

• Many carry identification cards at all times now, in case they are confronted by immigration agents.

As students at Maywood Academy High School in Los Angeles County prepared their backpacks to return to school, some packed additional items they never had before — government-issued documents verifying their legal immigration status and cards listing their legal rights.

These small details are signs of growing anxiety after deportations started hitting close to home.

Johanna, a student at the school, was arrested in June, alongside her mother and younger sister, while attending a scheduled immigration court appearance for their legal asylum case.

News of her arrest sent shock waves through the school, already on edge because of the omnipresent presence of immigration agents in and around their neighborhoods.

“It didn’t feel real, being completely honest, because we’re kids. We should be planning when to hang out but instead we need to identify which cars could be immigration and which cars can’t be; we need to be cautious; we need to know our rights,” said Chelsea Duran, a friend of Johanna’s.

Another student, Isaac, said as an immigrant, he always understood he needed to be careful, “but not to that point where I can’t speak Spanish, or I have to be scared just for the way I look or where I come from.”

The degree of fear he felt increased drastically this year in a way he and his friends had never experienced or expected.

“I’m not even safe in school. I’m not safe anywhere,” said Isaac. He and other students quoted in this story declined to share their last names out of security concerns.