James Tilton, Freshman English teacher and creative writing teacher at Eastside High School, recently had an encounter with his student whose mother got deported. This encounter changed the fate of many people in Lancaster, California student population.
A little intro to the lovely story of how California teacher opened up his house to the students whose parents were deported. Lancaster is a charter city in California and the data released earlier this year says that the town consists of 60% of Hispanic and Latino students.
Due to the policies concerning the deport of illegal residents, many students have suffered and left without parents.
Now, this story might seem like a heart-warming tale, but James made it clear that his views on this matter was not sweet. He opened up his house for a student who came to him because she didn’t know where else to stay after being left without parents. And he opened up his doors for other students in need, but he repeats that his efforts won’t reduce the effects of this cruel policy.
On June 19, a Tweet from James went viral.
https://twitter.com/JamesMTilton/status/1141080865453137921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1141080865453137921&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fnews%2Feducation%2F2019%2F06%2F19%2Fcalifornia-teacher-opens-home-students-deported-parents%2F1501912001%2F
He tweeted in an effort to reach out to his students who were in a similar situation as the above mentioned. He hoped that he would make their terrifying situation a bit less scary. He reminded his students that he and his wife were there for them.
With up to 89K likes and 31K retweets, his inbox quickly blew up with requests of help from strangers. Due to apparent circumstances and James’s wife’s chronic fatigue syndrome, they weren’t able to foster thousands of people, but James did aid his students in other ways.
“I tried to help where I could – connecting people with programs or experts, helping with resumes, proofreading GoFundMe pages,” said James. “I wish I could do more.”
After 2016 year election, James realized he’d have to become an advocate for his students. He started addressing this matter back then, and the letter he penned to all of his classes, ended up at Congress as a protest on behalf of students of Lancaster.
James Tilton now only hopes that his work has aided his students and that his example will inspire and encourage others to take action and support these people. He suggests becoming a certified foster, donating to immigrant support groups and volunteering as advocates of undocumented children.
Students With Deported Parents Found Home at Their Teacher's House
