Portland parents to rally after tear gas use at ICE building closes playground

PORTLAND, Ore. — For one Portland charter school, Monday will be an unusual first day back in the classroom. The playground will be closed, and some families tell KATU News tear gas is to blame.

Parents at The Cottonwood School of Civics and Science plan to hold a rally Monday at around 4 p.m. to voice concerns about chemicals used as crowd control tactics at the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building near campus.

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In videos shared with KATU by Independent Media PDX, people can see fires lit on Saturday, as well as demonstrators standing off against ICE officers.

"These protests and the response have been ongoing for the past year but at least the kids haven’t been at the school," Kate Sharaf said.

The Cottonwood School parent plans to speak at the rally on Monday after having tough conversations with her young children.

"They have questions like, 'What is tear gas?' and, 'Why are they doing that?' and, 'Is it going to be safe?' So, it’s really opened up larger conversations about what’s been going on," Sharaf said.

Over the last few months parents and the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners both wrote letters to the Department of Homeland Security to ask for a change.

"We don’t know the impacts, sort of, developmentally, overtime on kids and there is a chemical residue from these weapons and I feel we should be erring on the side of safety," Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meieran said.

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Portland Police said they found at least two fires on Saturday, including one that appeared to be against the ICE building. Sharaf said she doesn't believe tear gas is the right response.

"They’ve got to find another way to deal with this. It’s not acceptable for them to be littering our neighborhood with chemicals that are dangerous to people but especially to vulnerable populations and young children. It’s not acceptable," she said.

KATU also reached out to DHS as well as the Cottonwood School. We're still waiting to hear back at this time.