Watsonville teacher placed on leave after making pro-ICE comment on social media

Days after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested a Watsonville resident last month, social media circles in the Pajaro Valley erupted in outrage over a pro-ICE Facebook comment by a teacher intern at a Watsonville elementary school. 

When Jorge Guerrero came across social media posts denouncing his daughter’s teacher at MacQuiddy Elementary, he said he didn’t believe at first that she would make such a comment. 

“Yay!!! We need ICE in Watsonville!! It’s been getting out of hand,” read the comment from Sarai Jimenez, who was hired just over a year ago to teach a special education class at MacQuiddy. 

Over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, posts about Jimenez multiplied. Guerrero said his second grade daughter likes her teacher, but his concern grew. 

“You can’t just tell the world how you feel and not expect repercussions from people because of how they feel about ICE,” especially in Watsonville with its majority Latino population and immigrant communities, he said. “I think it struck a lot of people’s nerves that she would get on social media and say something like that.”

Jimenez’s comment landed hard in an immigrant community watching with growing anxiety as ICE’s tactics in Minneapolis escalated, while the country was reeling from the killing of activist Renee Good by a federal agent there. Multiple posts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok criticized Jimenez and attracted dozens of comments that argued that an ICE supporter couldn’t be trusted to work with the children of immigrants, should lose her job or shouldn’t live in Watsonville. 

On Jan. 19, the Watsonville Brown Berets took to social media and encouraged community members to email MacQuiddy Elementary principal Sara Pearman, district superintendent Heather Contreras and Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board about Jimenez. The organization called her actions a reflection of a “hostile unsafe environment,” and said MacQuiddy’s students and families deserve better. 

Social media threads also encouraged community members to call the district regarding Jimenez’s comment. 

Some defended Jimenez’s First Amendment right to speak her mind, even if they disagree with her views, and even as much of the community coalesces to support immigrants. 

Pajaro Valley Unified School District is 84% Latino students, and serves an unknown number of undocumented students and families, many of whom have told Lookout over the past year how the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has instilled rampant fear. At MacQuiddy, 90% of the student body is Hispanic. 

A screenshot of Jimenez’s pro-ICE comment flew through Watsonville’s online neighborhood groups along with her profile picture, but without the original post that preceded her comment. Soon after, Jimenez deleted her social media accounts or made them private.

Lookout reached out to Jimenez. She said she had been placed on paid administrative leave and hasn’t returned to the school since the comment was posted. She confirmed she wrote the comment during the Jan. 18 weekend.

Jimenez told Lookout she had received hostile social media comments and messages, including one calling on people to pop her car tires. Another message said they were going to file a complaint against her with the school, going on to say: “who knows what you’ll do behind closed doors to the kids of parents that are immigrants u shameful disgraceful disgusting woman.” Jimenez said she filed a police report related to the messages. 

Pearman told Lookout via email that she messaged the school’s families on Jan. 19 saying she was aware of a “social media post by a district employee that does not reflect the values of MacQuiddy or PVUSD. We understand this social media activity may be concerning for members of our community.” She told families that officials were addressing the incident. 

The next day, she told families in Jimenez’s classroom that she was working with human resources to find a long-term substitute to take over the class. Pearman declined to provide additional information about the incident and cited personnel privacy. 

Pajaro Valley Unified School District, of which MacQuiddy is part, would comment only generally about its policies and not about its actions in this case.

District spokesperson Alejandro Chavez said PVUSD couldn’t provide details about the incident, given that it’s a confidential personnel issue, but confirmed that officials were aware of an employee’s social media post. He said the district is following its procedures and state law to resolve any concerns about teacher conduct. 

“PVUSD cannot comment on specific allegations, the content or timing of any social media posts, the number of complaints received, or details related to any review or investigation,” Chavez wrote in an email. 

He said any district review focuses on whether an employee followed policies and also on “ensuring the safety, well-being, and trust of our school community” and would not “comment on whether an employee is or is not on administrative leave, nor on the status, scope, or potential outcomes of any personnel review.”

Overall, the district’s social media policy, which Lookout obtained, focuses on expected behaviors for employees when using official school district social media accounts. In cases like this one, when an employee uses their private account, the policy discourages employees from accepting current students as friends on the platforms, posting pictures of other employees or students and making false accounts. It also asks employees to consider whether a post could jeopardize their professionalism. 

“Consider whether a particular posting puts your professional reputation and effectiveness as a district employee at risk,” it reads. “Remember that once something is posted to a social networking site, it may remain available online even if you think it is removed, and it may be far-reaching.” 

‘Not a bad person, just made bad decisions’

“She’s not a bad person, she just made bad decisions,” said Guerrero, a longtime Watsonville resident with immigrant roots. “The way people are dragging it out on social media, everyone’s getting their opinion out for it.”  

Guerrero told Lookout that he reached out to Jimenez to ask her if what he was seeing all over social media was true. He said she responded, “Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.” That gave him the impression that Jimenez was not worried about potential backlash.

Parent Isaac Serrano, who has a fourth grader and second grader at MacQuiddy, told Lookout he came across the comment on social media just like everyone else. He saw posts calling out Jimenez’s remarks with her photo and a screenshot of the comment.

“I’m like, ‘What the f–k is going on?’” he said. “Why would you say something like that knowing that a majority of the school comes from immigrant families?”

Serrano said such comments only add to the growing fear felt by undocumented residents who call Watsonville home, many of whom are too scared about ICE seizure to go to work or go grocery shopping. 

It’s frustrating to see that sort of comment from a teacher entrusted with teaching the most vulnerable children at the school, said Serrano. He wants to ensure that his son and daughter and two nieces at MacQuiddy are in a safe learning environment. 

The following Friday when Serrano picked his kids up from school, he sought out Pearman to ask about Jimenez’s status on campus. She told him that Jimenez was placed on administrative leave, Serrano said. 

However, administrative leave is not enough for Serrano. “I’m going to continue putting pressure on the district to fire this person,” he said. “If I have to pull up to a board meeting, I will pull up to the board meeting and speak my mind out.” 

Serrano said Jimenez’s comment is “pure racism,” directed toward a community filled with immigrants. 

Guerrero, on the other hand, said he believes the comment was not racist and Jimenez was simply expressing her political views. However, he added that she should’ve thought more carefully about making comments supportive of ICE on a public platform. 

“If you would ask [my daughter] about Ms. Jimenez, she would tell you she’s a nice person,” Guerrero said. 

People should still be careful with what they share online, he said, especially in a community like Watsonville where a lot of residents are immigrants or come from immigrant families.

Jimenez’s stated views are ‘unusual’ among PVUSD teachers

Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers president Brandon Diniz said the union is aware of the online controversy over the comment. 

“I have not seen a member be fired for posting a comment on social media, but I also haven’t seen any comments that rise to this level of concern and blatant disrespect for our local community,” he said. “Because in our community, we value our neighbors.”

He said he can’t comment on individual discipline cases and wouldn’t disclose her name, citing privacy concerns, but he said “the employee” has had a social media presence for a while, including past anti-immigrant video posts. Diniz said these perspectives are “unusual” among the district’s teachers and the union’s membership.

“There is a balance between an individual’s right to free speech and also an employer’s prerogative to protect their students and staff,” he said. “It’s a very delicate balance. But this is abnormal, and I have not been involved with a similar situation during my time in union leadership.”

Jimenez declined to answer questions for this story or to provide background information about her life, like her family or prior employment. However, she provided a list of volunteer roles she’s served in for community organizations, arguing there’s more to who she is than this one comment. She said she was a general volunteer for Migrant Head Start and board member for Encompass Community Services, both organizations that serve immigrant and low-income families. 

“I’m sorry that the comment was taken out of context,” Jimenez wrote. “But my actions speak so much louder than all those hateful bullies’ words.”

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