Teachers Scrambled After ICE Released Tear Gas Outside a Chicago Elementary School

[Passages]

Chicago teachers said they’re dealing with traumatized students in underfunded schools — while the Trump administration spends millions to militarize American cities.

Jessica Washington
October 19 2025, 6:00 a.m.

Maria Heavener had opened the windows of her first-grade classroom to let in the unusually warm October breeze when the sound of helicopters, sirens, and a flood of notifications compelled her to slam them shut. During a raid on a nearby grocery store, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had hurled tear gas canisters into a parking lot across the street from Chicago’s Funston Elementary School, spreading a thick, choking smog toward the building while class was in session.

Heavener had heard rumors that ICE was planning to detain unaccompanied minors and that schools could be a target, but this scenario had never crossed her mind. “We definitely didn’t expect what happened,” she said. “We didn’t expect them to throw tear gas right outside of our school building.”

For the last month, the Trump administration has kept Chicago under siege. Customs and Border Protection agents arrested a 15-year-old U.S. citizen earlier this week after unleashing tear gas into a crowded residential neighborhood. Earlier in October, masked federal agents raided a five-story apartment building in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Chicago and zip-tied naked children as they dragged their parents away.

SNIP*
Heavener said she struggled to explain the events that occurred on October 3 to her class of 6 and 7-year-olds. “A lot of them were sad, worried, scared, nervous,” she said. “Some of them said they’re scared because they don’t want their own family members to be taken away.”

https://theintercept.com/2025/10/19/chicago-schools-ice-national-guard-trump/

[Norrrm]

1. It is so much easier (and SAFER) to target schoolchildren than violent MS13 gangs.

[Passages]

2. Exactly.

[Clouds Passing]

3. They need product for their child sex trafficking business.

Disgusting 🤮