Skip Navigation
Remote View
Portland @lemmy.ml
j_roby @slrpnk.net

Thanks, Trump: ICE Just Gassed a Public School Into Submission

Cartwright described for Rolling Stone a years-long struggle to keep kids safe at school. “Munitions and tear gas — we aren’t new to this,” she says. “We’d been next to the ICE building the whole time.” She emphasized that the school has coexisted “harmoniously with the protesters,” but adds: “Our issue is the chemical weapons being used against them that were impacting our space.”

But as the intensity of the conflict rose, it soon became clear that the school would have to make a dramatic change. “We were getting nightly reports that green gas was enveloping our garden — our edible garden — and all of the different chemicals were impacting our soil.” Cottonwood faced the costly prospect of constant testing and remediation, or being unable to use its outdoor spaces. When the bottom dropped out of enrollment, the school chose to relocate to a recently vacant middle-school campus where Cottonwood could take over the lease.

10 comments

  • This is a really great write-up, buts it's a shame that the article does not mention that the building the school is moving into is owned by the same people that own the ICE building...

    https://www.streetroots.org/news/2025/08/05/k-8-school-next-door-portland-ice-facility-plans-immediate-move

    But several board members, staff and students’ parents said moving to the Bridges building could leave immigrant students at risk.

    That building is owned by local real estate company Lindquist Development, which also owns the building ICE leases. Stuart Linquist, the company’s president, struck a protester with his Mercedes outside the ICE facility in 2018, and later threatened to fight anti-ICE protestors in an interview with Willamette Week about the incident.

    Some Cottonwood staff and board members fear Lindquist could allow ICE agents into the building while students are in classes, according to sources who spoke to Street Roots on condition of anonymity.

  • To be clear, ICE isn't TARGETING the school, the school just happens to be across the street (red marker here) from the ICE office that is being protested.

    So as ICE uses munitions against the protest, the school is facing the side effects.

    Headline makes it sound as though ICE is targeting the school due to migrant students or something and that is not the case (yet).

    • Bruh you're literally using IDF talking points.

      To be clear, IDF isn’t TARGETING the school, the school just happens to be across the street from the secret Hamas base that also looks like a hospital.

      So as IDF uses munitions against Hamas, the school is facing the side effects.

      Headline makes it sound as though IDF is targeting the school due to Palestinian students or something and that is not the case (yet).

    • I mean... it's right there in the subheading...

      Portland charter school faced fallout from chemical munitions federal riot cops fired at ICE protesters

      • Subheading, yes, but the headline is inflammatory. Saying they are forcing the school into submission implies they are targeting the school, they aren't.

10 comments