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

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/26445083

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.

  • BigBenis@lemmy.world
    18·
    3 days ago

    This is happening not far from me and I’ve been watching it play out over the last three months. It’s egregious what ICE is getting away with. The agents are armed and armored. They’re tackling peaceful protectors, slamming them to the ground, sending them to the hospital. The school’s outdoor playground is about 50 feet away from where they’re constantly gassing. It’s not just the school either, there are apartment buildings and businesses across the street from the ICE building where residents are getting exposed as well. There’s a dance school a couple blocks down as well where adults and children come and go.

    It’s not even like the gas is being an effective deterrent. The protestors have masks too or simply just don’t give a fuck and tank it. They’re just deploying munitions against civilians because they can and want to.

    Iceoutofportland has been regularly reporting on the situation from the front line all summer if you want to see what’s been going down daily since June.

  • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    65·
    4 days ago

    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).

    Also note: There are no kids in that school currently, first day of school for them is 9/2.

  • j_roby@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    67·
    4 days ago

    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.

  • VeryVito@lemmy.ml
    16·
    4 days ago

    They consider “ICE === Gestapo” an incendiary message? Wait til they see the things that ICE agents say about the people they’re pretending to “protect.”