Latino activists in Sioux City are gathering signatures to protest Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appearance at West High School next Tuesday evening. They plan to present a petition to the Superintendent of Schools in Sioux City saying Trump should not be allowed to use school property.
A former student at West, Francisco Valadez, launched the petition drive. He calls Trump a bully for his attitudes against immigrants and says he doesn’t belong in Iowa schools.
But the Superintendent of Schools in Sioux City, Paul Gausman, says the district followed school board policy in agreeing to rent West High to the Trump campaign.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m disrespecting those who have decided to sign on to a petition, or anything of the sort,” he says, “but we don’t make our decisions by petition, we make them by policy, and I’m bound to follow board policy, and of course the laws of the community and the state of Iowa.”
In his petition, Valadez voices concern for the safety of Latinos in Sioux City, pointing to confrontations outside past Trump campaign stops in Ames and Dubuque.