Weeks after this story was published, Metro Nashville Public Schools said it's not clear who the visitors were and what, if any, agency they were with.

In an escalation that alarmed advocates and Metro officials, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents showed up at a Nashville elementary school last month asking for student records.

Metro Nashville Public Schools confirmed to the Scene that immigration officials made the request at Una Elementary School in southeast Nashville, but said that school officials did not release any information. The school is notably diverse and has a significant immigrant population. Thirty-nine percent of it students are English Language Learners, and 23 different languages are spoken at the school.

MNPS spokesperson K. Dawn Rutledge elaborated on the school's response to ICE in a statement:

Under Policy 6.600, all MNPS employees, contractors, and volunteers are respectful of the privacy of students and families. Confidential student records and information are not to be released. If anyone other than the student’s parent, guardian or other person the parent has authorized calls the school or comes to the school requesting access to a student, student records, or information about a student, only an authorized official (the principal) has authority to determine whether the student information can be released. If the person requesting the information produces a document that appears to be a legal document that a principal has any question about, such as a warrant or other court order, MNPS principals are instructed to call their superiors for support and review. It is a principal’s responsibility to share and explain the practical application of the policy to the school’s staff, including teachers and front office personnel, so they can help assure a safe and welcoming environment conducive to learning.

Following ICE's visit to Una Elementary, the district's interim director of schools Adrienne Battle sent a memo to Nashville principals on Sept. 26 emphasizing the student records policy. The memo did not address the incident involving ICE.

In a written statement to the Scene, Lisa Sherman-Nikolaus, policy director for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, praised the school's response while condemning ICE's tactics:

Our schools should be a safe space for all children — a place to be able to grow and learn without fear they could be separated from their families. That’s why it is outrageous and deeply troubling that ICE agents felt emboldened enough to visit an elementary school and request student information. Using school children to tear families apart does not make our communities safer or stronger. The very presence of ICE agents creates fear and anxiety, which only distracts from the important work Nashville educators do to foster a supportive and healthy learning environment for every student. We are grateful for the actions taken by the Una Elementary school staff to put their students’ safety first, and we encourage Metro Public Schools to continue to develop robust policies and ensure all teachers, staff and administrators are prepared, trained and ready to reject ICE’s unwelcome intrusions into our schools. It’s time for Nashville to draw a bright line between our local government agencies and ICE’s extreme and inappropriate law enforcement tactics that create fear and trauma in our schools and throughout the community. Every child deserves to feel safe, secure, and welcome in their school, and no parent should be afraid to take their child to school or engage in their education.

Metro school board member Gini Pupo-Walker — who represents Green Hills-area District 8 but spent years working as a teacher and advocate in South Nashville’s immigrant community — says she was “alarmed” when she heard about ICE visiting a Metro school.

“They have a memo from 2011 saying that schools are considered sensitive locations, along with hospitals and churches," says Pupo-Walker. "So, this is alarming that they are willing to sort of cross that line. Really troubling, and I think really creates a lot of urgency for me as a school board member and chair of the governance committee to have us revisit what our policy is on sharing student data.

"Maybe the policy doesn’t need to be adjusted, but it might simply be a matter of making sure all principals, front-office personnel, are fully apprised of their rights, their obligations under [the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act], what they have the right to say and not say, do and not do," she continues. "[We] certainly wouldn’t be asking them to break the law, but if they’re equipped I think they would be able to respond.”

Pupo-Walker says she's grateful that Una Elementary principal Amelia Dukes was “clear-headed, clear-thinking” and “did the right thing.” But, she adds, “You just never know who an ICE officer would encounter in a front office." Sometimes volunteers and student workers work in schools' main offices, she says.

Pupo-Walker says she's not aware of any other schools that were approached by ICE.

Update (1:20 p.m.): A statement from Conexión Américas executive director, Juliana Ospina Cano: