In the wake of a small-town police chief visiting three Cincinnati schools on behalf of ICE, Cincinnati Public Schools said police were not searching for specific students. But that is not the case.
District emails obtained by The Enquirer this week show CPS was aware that the Gratis police officers who appeared on school property on April 15 carried a list of 30 students with them.
The district maintains that school personnel “did not entertain” the police chief’s attempt to check on the welfare of those on the list, while records show that staff at Western Hills University Academy did, in fact, verify two names on the list as students.
District Superintendent Shauna Murphy emailed board of education members shortly after 3 p.m. the day of the incident, saying Gratis Police Chief Tonina Lamanna visited Western Hills University High School, Rees E. Price Academy and Roberts Academy, claiming to be doing wellness checks on students. She was with another Gratis officer.
“They had a list of 30 individuals they were checking on. Price and Roberts had them leave the property immediately,” Murphy wrote in the email obtained by The Enquirer. “Western Hills High School verified 2 names on the list as students.”
A student’s enrollment status generally can be disclosed by schools as it’s outside the bounds of federal and state student privacy laws protecting students’ Social Security numbers, health records and other sensitive information.
“We’ve moved on. This is not even an issue anymore,” the district said in a statement to The Enquirer on April 28. “Gratis Village Council … it’s up to them to decide what happens from there.”
The district did not answer The Enquirer’s questions about whether the guardians of the students who appeared on the list, including the two Western Hills High School students, were directly notified about the situation.
The night of the visits, the district shared a general statement to families on social media, stating “There was no interaction with students, and we have taken action to ensure student safety.”
At a press conference on April 16, Murphy responded to a reporter’s question about whether Gratis police were searching for specific students, saying “No, I’m not aware of specific students that they were here to see.”
Lamanna, along with the officer who accompanied her, Jeffrey Baylor, were put on leave on April 19 in a unanimous move by the council of Gratis, a small village about an hour north of Cincinnati. Baylor later resigned from the department on April 21.
“We’ve just done a training in the last month with all clerical front-end staff of schools. They’re the folks who greet families and visitors to the school. So we felt they were very prepared,” the district’s attorney Dan Hoying said at the April 16 press conference.
The Greater Cincinnati region’s largest district has trained its staff on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-specific security protocols since January 2025, the district previously told The Enquirer. A training document that The Enquirer obtained outlines a step-by-step guide for responding to immigration enforcement activity, stating that ICE officers do not have special authorization to access schools without a warrant.
Requests for any student information, including immigration status, can be directed to the district’s Office of General Counsel, the training document states. If the officer asks to interview a student, the students’ parents must be contacted first.
The village’s police department may have been performing the welfare checks as part of a newer program called the UAC (Unaccompanied Alien Child) Safety Verification Initiative. The federal program directs local law enforcement to conduct welfare checks on minors that the Department of Homeland Security says entered the country illegally and unaccompanied.
An ICE memo states Homeland Security Investigations agents will create “target packets” and verify whether the children are registered in school and coordinate with other federal officials on obtaining warrants.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati schools verified 2 student names in ICE checks, emails show
Reporting by Grace Tucker, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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