The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously on July 10 to approve the “Putting Kids First Means Keeping Families Together” resolution authored by board Vice President Nick Melvoin.

In addition to condemning the Trump administration’s policy of separating families at the border and its harmful impact on children, the resolution ensures that the LAUSD will be prepared to embrace and support children that may come to district schools in the wake of the policies.

“We have to rise to the call of protecting all kids,” Melvoin said. “That is our duty as educators, as Americans and as humans, when the current administration acts without any shred of humanity.”

The resolution was co-sponsored by board President Mónica García and board members Kelly Gonez and Dr. Ref Rodriguez.

“I’m deeply impacted and disturbed every day by seeing the images of children under 5 coming in front of a judge to plead their case,” García said. “No child should ever have to go through such an experience. Our country is practicing the absence of justice. Justice for all does not look like this.”

The board members added that the resolution is especially important because the Trump administration considers placing undocumented children into foster care as a form of “family reunification.”

“This administration’s heartless separation of migrant families is unconscionable,” Gonez said. “At Los Angeles Unified, we stand with the families and will do everything in our power to protect them and give every child the access and supports necessary to get a great public education.”

“I am at once severely disappointed and honored to co-sponsor this imperative resolution,” Rodriguez added. “I am severely disappointed in the current administration’s lack of judgment, character and empathy. Forcibly separating children from their parents in this manner is unconscionable. I am also honored because this cause is essential, one of the defining human rights issues of our era. Through this resolution we are all coming together to signal that, in L.A. Unified, we still have enough perspective to see that the White House is on the wrong side of history.”