Postville Panel

The Postville Panel was very informing and emotional for me. Growing up about 20 miles away from Postville, I knew about the diversity in Postville. I knew there was a large population of Hispanics that lived in the small town and worked in the plant.

When the raid happened, I was clueless about what was happening. I thought raids were more towards the southern border, little did I know the largest one would be 20 miles away from me. Since I only received the general idea of what happened, I thought it would be good to go to the panel.

That night I walked into the room thinking they would give their opinions about how the raid should have been handled or if there should have even been a raid. What I found most interesting was that they didn't discuss those matters as much. We heard from a few ladies that were effected by the raid. They were Hispanic workers whose husbands were sent to jails. They talked about their children, the day of the raid, and many other details of how their lives have changed.

When the ladies were telling their stories I began to tear up. I'm not saying that what they have been doing was right, but the way these ladies are now treated and how it effected their family really touched me. The stories that effected me the most were the ones of the children being told at school that they might not have one or both parents at home when they came back from school and the story of the mother who has a son that has had eye surgery in order to be able to see. The dilemma she is having is about her son. Her husband was deported and why she waits to see what happens to her, she is faced with the problem of what to do with her son. If she is deported she can either take him with or leave him in the United States with another family since the son is a USA citizen. The son has had surgery in the United States to be able to see. The doctor told the mother that if she took her son back with her to Guatemala, he doesn't think he will be able to see again because he won't have his regular doctor's appointments. As the woman sat there with an electronic shackle on her ankle, I started tearing up thinking about how the raid has really impacted this woman and her family drastically.

From the teaching aspect of their stories, I don't know what I would do when I heard about the raid with many Hispanic students in class that may have their lives changed forever. The school told the Hispanic students that their parents may or may not be home tonight. I think they probably scared their students half to death, but then on the other hand you don't know who's parents were arrested and who's weren't and they do need to be informed. What I would want to do as a teacher would be to escort every child home and make sure they had some one there after classes and after the school had told them. If they didn't have someone at home that night, then I would take them home with me. I don't know if that is how you are to professionally handle the situation though. It is a very hard situation to inform your students about and it's hard to know the best way to do so.