Waukegan High School’s nationally recognized Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) drill team is making every effort to become a national champion at the highest level of competition.
Accomplishing its goal requires competing against the best possible competition. Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Nasser, a JROTC instructor at the school, wants to take 42 cadets to a competition in Mansfield, Texas, in early October to give them that opportunity.
But, with approximately 80% of the Waukegan Community Unit School District 60 student body being Hispanic, some members of the Board of Education have concerns about sending the students on a trip to Texas.
“While I believe we should not live in fear, we should live in caution,” board member Carolina Fabian said.
The District 60 Board of Education voted 5-1 with an abstention to approve the expenditure for the trip on Tuesday at the Education Service Center in Waukegan concerned about the cadets’ safety, but not wanting to deprive them of the opportunity to compete.
Nasser said the 42 team members will compete in the Bishop Evans Invitational drill competition from Oct. 2-6 in Mansfield. Already national champions at different levels and in specific events, a top-five finish would place the team in the highest class. It was three places shy last year.
“If you want to move up, you’ve got to be around that mentality and that drive,” Nasser said. “You’ve got to be around those like-minded people.”
Fabian, who abstained from the final vote, said that as she reviewed the materials submitted by the JROTC staff, she was not convinced there are sufficient procedures in place to protect the students if they encounter U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“We are at a time where politicians in that particular state fled,” Fabian said. “We’re at a time when the National Guard is being weaponized, and we see ICE on Waukegan streets regularly. I’m just cautioning (about) the times we’re living in.”
When the trip was discussed during a committee meeting on Aug. 12, Fabian expressed similar concerns. She said she wanted to see “robust” protocols, showing how chaperones were trained in the event ICE stopped their bus or arrived at the competition.
Being 577 miles from the Mexican border rather than less than 100 miles where ICE has more leeway, Nasser said the chaperones are aware of the situation and know what to do. Everyone involved is aware of the concerns and knows what to do. Rooms are checked at bedtime.
“Everyone knows what to do and to be careful,” Nasser said. “ICE won’t come between me and my students.”
Board President Michael Rodriguez said after the meeting he voted yes with trepidation. He is very aware of the national situation, but in the end he believed the positives outweighed the negatives.
“I was on the verge of voting no because I am worried about our kids and what they might experience out there,” Rodriguez said. “I did not want to deprive them of a big opportunity.”
Christine Lensing, another board member, cast the lone no vote. She said her first priority, both for her own children and the District 60 community, is safety. She made it clear that the students earned the right to compete and blamed the adults.
“I have to say no, not because you don’t deserve it, not because you haven’t earned it, not because you are not qualified,” Lensing said. “You guys are all of those things. Unfortunately, the adults are not behaving in a way to allow all of our kids opportunities.”
Board member Anita Hanna said she voted yes because she did not want to deprive the students of the chance to not just compete against quality competition, but also because of the opportunities of the event.
“It’s an opportunity for our students to engage with kids from other places and network with them,” Hanna said after the meeting. “They will get to have positive interactions with students from all over and experience different things.”
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Fabian said after the meeting she abstained because she did not want to deprive students of the experience when the lack of proper protocol and training was a failure of the adults.
“Everyone, not just immigrants, documented or undocumented, should know their rights,” Fabian said. “They are everybody’s rights. We should all know what our rights are because the reality is my forehead does not say ‘citizen’ or ‘non-citizen.’”
Also voting yes were board members Angela Ramierz, Jeff McBride and Rick Riddle.