On the first day of school in Washington D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser said she sympathized with the dilemma of immigrant parents who may be keeping their children home for fear of being detained or arrested by ICE agents.

“Parents are anxious. We’ve heard from a lot of them,” Bowser said, following a ribbon cutting ceremony for a newly renovated bilingual middle school. “Parents who need to make adjustments are going to be making adjustments, and that’s a sad thing to say. Schools should be safe places.”

As schools opened across the capital city, parental social media groups and listservs were buzzing with reports and rumors of checkpoints and arrests from the hundreds of federal law enforcement personnel who have flooded the city.

Bowser didn’t mention President Donald Trump by name, but harshly criticized any immigration crackdown that targets school children.

“Any attempt to target children is heartless, is mean, is uncalled for and it only hurts us,” she said. “I would just call for everybody to leave our kids alone.”

D.C. Public Schools issued a message Friday seeking to reassure parents concerned that federal law enforcement or ICE officers would target schools with large immigrant populations.

The DCPS statement declared that all student records were protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and could only be shared, “with parental consent and a lawful court order.”

The statement added that and law enforcement action on any school grounds can only take place “with a valid warrant or a court order.”