01-04-2025
Protester carried out after undocumented student bill passes TN committee
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A protester was carried out of the Capitol Tuesday morning after a Senate committee advanced a proposal targeting undocumented students.
The bill would allow school districts to check documentation of students and require undocumented students to pay tuition. Supporters say it could ease the burden on school districts. But opponents are questioning the motivation of a bill that runs in direct conflict with a 1982 Supreme Court ruling.
Some protesters refused to leave the hearing room after the vote.
The state senators with the Finance, Ways and Means committee spent 30 minutes discussing this legislation before coming to a 7-4 vote. Once the gavel wrapped, one man started singing 'Jesus Loves the Little Children,' which led the chair to ask for a recess and for the gallery to be cleared.
Tennessee bill to let school districts deny undocumented students narrowly passes Senate committee
Several protestors in the front of the room didn't listen to the Sergeant At Arms' demand for them to clear the room. Three Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers were then called in and politely asked them to leave the room.
The protesters began sharing their concerns with the troopers, to which they politely responded that they had no power over the situation.
One trooper even got on one knee to console a protester in tears. After about 12 minutes, the protesters in the front row got up, and just as they were walking out, they noticed their 80-year-old friend was still sitting in the room, refusing to get up. The protesters wouldn't leave without her.
And after 10 minutes of troopers trying to get her to stand up and walk out — even warning her that she would have to be charged if they removed her — she refused, saying 'do what you have to do.' More than eight troopers came into the room to have her carried out of the room and the building.
Demonstrators gather in opposition of bill that would allow schools 'to refuse to enroll' undocumented students
She was then driven off in a sheriff's patrol vehicle. She was taken to the Metro jail to be booked on unknown charges.
'It's just unbelievably sad that our legislators are so calloused and so closed off to the cares and concerns of the communities that they're supposed to represent, said Rev. Emily Haynes with Kaleo Nashville Church.
'I look at this as being parallel to refusing to allow black people to learn to read before the civil war. This is just a return of the same kind of mentality, same kind of cruelty, anger and hatred that is undeserved and irrelevant shouldn't be there at all. Needs to be done away with and pushed out,' said former Nashville educator Jim Polk.
The committee's recommendation of the bill means that it is now available for floor debate and a vote in the state senate.
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