Local officials agree with Deal » Local News » Dalton Daily Citizen

Regarding news last week that approximately 30 unaccompanied minors from Central America, who had crossed the southern border into the United States, were sent without warning to Dalton last year and enrolled in Dalton Public Schools, Republican politicians representing portions of Murray and Whitfield Counties agree — state and local school officials deserved to know in advance, they say.

“I think the governor very clearly articulated one side of this issue. The federal government has to be upfront with us about things like this,” said Rep. Tom Dickson, R-Cohutta, who represents District 6 in the state House of Representatives. “We should have had communication — the state should have had communication — ahead of time, before any students were moved down here.”

When federal officials revealed that unaccompanied migrants — the Dalton group are part of a total of 1,154 minors overall — had been transferred to Georgia during the previous year, Gov. Nathan Deal admonished the president and federal officials for not providing notice to his office or the school systems that would receive students.

Indeed, no warning was provided to the Dalton district, according to school officials, who have since scrambled to create a new program for the children — due to a lack of formal education and language barriers, the mostly teenaged students are unable to attend classes with the general population.

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