SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz City Schools was not prepared for the influx of Salvadoran children it faced this year, officials say.
Beginning in the fall, the school districts saw an unexpected surge in Salvadoran students arrive at its doors, trailing traumatic experiences like heavy luggage.
“Many of our students have been threatened, seen family members assaulted, killed, disappeared. And they’re coming on their own, for the most part, through whatever challenges to get here and then detained in detention centers once they arrive,” said Eileen Brown, director of student services for Santa Cruz City Schools. “So, they’re dealing with all that trauma, the reason they originally left, and then their travels to get here.”
Spread primarily across Gault Elementary School, Branciforte Middle School, Branciforte Small Schools and Harbor High School, the school system has gained some 45 new Salvadoran children since August, said Brown,
More Salvadorans came to Santa Cruz schools than any other immigrant group this year, representing about half the newest group of English language-learners. The next highest population, at 12 percent, were born in Mexico.
Nereida Robles, a social worker for the middle and high school district, said she sees Salvadorans as the most vulnerable among the newcomer population, who have spent less than a year in U.S. schools. In addition to changes in culture, language and education systems, many of the Salvadoran students have faced additional difficulties such as a gap in their schooling and a history with gang-related violence. El Salvador has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, according to the U.S. Department of State. Some students, said Robles, traveled alone to the U.S. and are reuniting with family after years of separation.
Previously, the newcomer population was more heavily weighted toward young Mexican immigrants, Robles said.
ADDRESSING VIOLENCE
In the fall, Santa Cruz City Schools will launch a new specialized trauma counseling program for its Salvadoran students, with the help of a proposed nearly $17,000 city of Santa Cruz “safety net” grant. The one-time funding will be used to set up hourly therapy sessions for students in need, officials said.
Brown said the funding is a start. Newcomers have already begun sharing dramatic and difficult personal stories with school officials who meet with them, she said, and need space to continue the process.
Robles said, from the stories she hears from students, violence plays a major role in their departure from El Salvador.
“Gang recruitment is huge there,” Robles said. Basically, you join the gang or you’re dead.”
Once they arrive, the students are having to avoid the attention of the same gangs familiar from the homeland, Brown said. Also, she said, Salvadoran students sometimes face discrimination from Latino students of other cultures.
“One of the things that our families and students were telling us after the February raid that our Salvadoran students were facing some really unkind call-outs,” Brown said, referring to a joint Department of Homeland Security and Santa Cruz Police Department gang sting operation. “‘It’s your fault,’ ‘You’re the ones who brought ICE, the police into our neighborhoods, so we’re blaming you.’”
STRONG TIES
Santa Cruz’s connection to El Salvador goes back decades, as immigrants have traveled to the area to rejoin family members and friends in this county and local community members have raised funds for numerous Salvadoran causes. According to the U.S. Census, Santa Cruz County’s Salvadoran population reached nearly 1,700 in 2010, representing .6 percent of the county’s overall population at the time.
Felton resident Charles “Les” Gardner, said the country’s issues are close to his hear. He has advocated for the U.S. to provide the country with needed resources over the years. In 2014, he led a California state delegation to learn about child migrant crisis in Central America countries, including El Salvador. He said the Salvadoran government has been making strides in improving the country’s condition in the past 18 months, but conditions are still difficult, particularly in poverty-stricken areas.
“The Salvadorans living in Santa Cruz, they’re hard-working family-oriented productive members of the community and it’s very forward-thinking for our schools to give these children the tools they need to succeed here. The entire community’s going to benefit from that,” Gardner said. “El Salvador’s a country that’s virtually in our backyard, so it’s in our interest to provide resources to stabilize that country and reduce that violence.”
In addition to obtaining the city grant, Santa Cruz City Schools district officials are seeking additional service grant opportunities and working to get students in need enrolled in MediCal for continuing services, Brown said. A full-time mental health specialist, which is not currently being considered, would cost the district something in the neighborhood of $100,000 a year salary, plus benefits, she said. On the other end of the issue, district administrators have been given one-hour training explaining trauma’s impacts on learning, concentration, energy and more, Brown said.
“What we are going to be using the grant fund is really to do therapy, have students work with somebody who is bilingual, bicultural, really can understand what they came through, really understand their stories, work on therapy, and hopefully with the family that they’ve joined,” Brown said.
