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Children Dealing with the Aftermath of Yesterday's Raid

December 13th, 2006 @ 4:20pm

Gene Kennedy Reporting

Federal officials say it's rare for someone to be charged with an immigration violation and remain in the country. Most will be deported and several Utah families will be separated. It's already happening in Hyrum and Logan.

To some watching TV, these are merely illegal immigrants. To teachers like Brad Hawkes, they are the parents of students at his school.

Brad Hawkes, 5th grade teacher: "I had a little girl come into my classroom this morning in tears. I asked if everything was okay and she said ‘I'm just sad for all my friends' and people that she knows who have been affected by this."

Hawkes teaches 5th grade at Canyon Elementary. About a dozen students were absent today. None of his kids, but other teachers do not have certain students in their classroom today.

Brad Hawkes: "I've seen some very sad faces and some sorrow, I haven't seen anyone breaking down but we're concerned for these kids."

Yesterday, secretaries and teachers all over the Cache and Logan City School Districts found themselves calling students' family members or relatives to pick them up from school. Some kids only have one parent to go home to and others have none, they're with relatives.

It's possible those kids may not come back to school for a while. In fact, some may never return. And to think, they were there just yesterday.

There are 450 students at Canyon Elementary,100 of them at least were impacted by what happened yesterday, that's about a fourth of the school.

Brad Hawkes: "The kids have found themselves caught in this dilemma where the government and their parents, and they really have no say over anything, and so it's been really heart wrenching as teachers to watch that."

Tonight, a meeting helped provide comfort and resources for families left behind. The goal was to help and unify families affected by one of the nation's largest immigration crackdowns.