Court Had Issued A “Final Order of Removal” In May 2024 For The Deportation of The Guyana Native
Every teacher who has ever sought a teaching job or any other position in a school system knows that districts conduct very thorough background checks before anyone is hired. After all, no one wants someone with a criminal past working with children in any setting, much less a school.
It’s supposed to be that way for Superintendents too, except, perhaps in Des Moines, Iowa. Someone missed a huge problem about newly hired Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts. He was illegal, had a deportation order since 2024, plus he had gun charges. Here is the report from ICE:
Here is the statement from ICE:
“This suspect was arrested in possession of a loaded weapon in a vehicle provided by Des Moines Public Schools after fleeing federal law enforcement,” said ICE ERO St. Paul Field Office Director Sam Olson. “This should be a wake-up call for our communities to the great work that our officers are doing every day to remove public safety threats. How this illegal alien was hired without work authorization, a final order of removal, and a prior weapons charge is beyond comprehension and should alarm the parents of that school district.”
For all complaining about ICE deportations and “lack of due process,” please note the deportation order was from 2024 and Roberts had his day in court.
Did we say he has been running Iowa’s largest school district since 2023? He has.
Roberts, a native from Guyana, was hired by the Des Moines Board of Education via a unanimous decision in July of 2023. He was a 1998 graduate of Coppin State University and competed in the Olympics for Guyana. His career of three decades included Superintendent jobs in Pennsylvania and Missouri. He had previously been the founding principal of Friendship Academy of Science and Technology in Baltimore and served as the Director of School Turnaround and principal of the Academies at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C. He had no work authorization but had allegedly disclosed his gun charges to the Iowa school district prior to his hiring.
Des Moines has the largest district in IOWA with over 30,000 students.
At the time of his arrest he was in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife, ICE said.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will handle the investigation into how Roberts acquired a handgun, ICE said, noting it’s against federal law for people in the United States without legal status to possess a firearm and ammunition.
It also against district policy for anyone to have a gun on school property. Roberts allegedly violated that policy as well.
The district claimed they had done a thorough background check. In a statement Friday evening, the Des Moines Public schools said a third-party comprehensive background check had been conducted on Roberts. Roberts’ salary, including perks and a district owned vehicle, was over $300,000 a year. He fled from police in the car provided by the Des Moines Public Schools.
“In this case, Dr. Roberts completed the I-9 employment eligibility verification form and submitted the required documentation,” stated Phil Roeder, the districts’ director of communications and public affairs.
The statement also said the district had no knowledge of Roberts’ order of removal. Questions remain as to how the district, which hired a third party to do the search that yielded Roberts, seemed oblivious to his illegal status.
He is currently being held in ICE’s custody at an unknown location. An interim Superintendent is in place.
Jackie Norris, the Chairman of the Des Moines School Board, current candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa and former Michelle Obama Chief of Staff, confirmed that Roberts was detained by ICE agents Friday morning. At a news conference, she asked for the community to practice “radical empathy.” She also said the district does “not have all the facts” about his arrest.
Roberts spent his childhood in Brooklyn, New York after immigrating to the U.S. with his parents. His biography from the Des Moines District website listed his bachelor’s from Coppin State University, master’s degrees from St. John’s University and Georgetown University, and his doctorate in urban educational leadership from Trident University. He also has several education certificates, including one from Harvard University. He was a track and field athlete for Guyana in the Sydney Olympic Games and at the World Track and Field Championships.
Comments about the arrest fell along party lines with Democrats calling it an “overreach” of the federal government and Republicans citing the fact that Roberts broke several federal laws, thus justifying the action.
In his bio from Coppin State, Roberts said, “My steps have been divinely guided during the past thirty years, and I am confident that they will continue to be guided. One day, I hope to return to my birthplace of Guyana, South America, as a public servant.”
If this deportation order holds, he may get that chance.
LOCAL CONNECTION: Roberts was the principal of the Friendship Academy of Science and Technology in Baltimore City. The school closed in 2015. Roberts was the founder of the school and left in 2009 prior to its closure. The school closed because it did not meet academic goals with a rating of “not effective” in the math and reading sections of the Maryland State Assessments during that time period.
Jan Greenhawk
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