Fenway Teacher Jailed Under PATRIOT Act
Students Save Him From Deportation
By Jon Tucker

“I would not be here if it wasn’t for you,” said Obain Attouoman to the hundreds of students and teachers who protested outside of the JFK Federal Building the day before he was released from jail o­n March 4. o­n their way to demonstrate for the second day in a row, the Fenway High School and Boston Arts Academy students, numbering almost 300, received news that the protest was not needed because Attouoman – beloved teacher, friend, and mentor – had been released. So instead of rallying in Government Center, they all went back to school to rally around the newly freed, 42-year-old, quintilingual teacher. Now he is back in the classroom teaching, awaiting the end of his legal battle with the Department of Homeland Security.

The students had not seen the popular teacher since before Thanksgiving break. When Attouoman went to retrieve his towed car o­n November 28, 2003, he was arrested and jailed o­n a warrant of deportation. He had missed an immigration hearing o­n June 7, 2001 that he thought was o­n July 7, a mistake the Department of Homeland Security would not condone. Just days after the missed hearing, he received notice that the judge had ordered him deported.

Attouoman had sought asylum in the U.S. from the politically hazardous atmosphere of Ivory Coast in 1994. Seven years later, he received a notice telling him to defend his reasons for asylum at a U.S. Immigration Court; he misread the handwritten date, which, courtesy of the PATRIOT Act, left him vulnerable to over three months in jail. According to Attouoman’s lawyer, Susan Cohen, immigration Judge Eliza C. Klein denied a motion to rescind the deportation order without any explanation. An appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2002 was simply dismissed.

“Let me talk to a judge! That’s all I want,” said Attouoman. “But no, I missed o­ne and that’s it. Is this what you call due process?”

For a couple months, students did not know what had happened to Attouoman. His disappearance after Thanksgiving break had some questioning whether he had simply left; however, many of his colleagues knew that he would not willingly abandon his students without notice. Initially, Attouoman’s lawyer kept the story from the public in an effort to keep a low profile while sorting out the legal matters.

“We were optimistic that he’d be out soon, so protesting was definitely a last resort,” said Fenway High School Headmaster Peggy Kemp.

Meanwhile, concerned friends such as Attouoman’s co-teacher Abbie Schirmer went to visit him in jail.

“The Department of Homeland Security section of the Suffolk County Jail o­nly allowed two visiting days a week,” Schirmer explained. “The Fenway teachers would go o­n Friday evenings and his other close friends o­n Sunday afternoons.”

According to Schirmer, teachers who tried to give Attouoman some reading material were denied. Authorities disallowed a Harry Potter book because it was a hardcover, and history books were refused because they were not sent directly from the publisher. The o­nly reading material he was allowed was a subscription to Newsweek. Fed up with the restrictions, Schirmer asked to have a meeting with the lawyer at the end of January to discuss the injustice of Attouoman’s incarceration and possible deportation.

“[Cohen] recommended the letter writing campaign,” Kemp said, “and students, parents, teachers and administrators all wrote” to Bruce Chadbourne – the Interim Field Office Director for Detention and Removal for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – asking him to release Attouoman from jail. U.S. Congressman Michael Capuano and City Councilors Felix Arroyo and Michael Ross also backed Attouoman, asking U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to be reasonable and let him stay.

“The lawyer wanted letters of support by February 9,” Schirmer said. Time was running low and authorities told Attouoman “his case was to be decided o­n February 29.” March rolled around and the school heard nothing. o­n Super Tuesday, Attouoman, still being held in the Suffolk County Jail, was told that he was going to be deported the following day because his request for release was denied. When teachers received word of this at 2 p.m. the same day, they quickly adjourned their staff meeting, and by 3:15 there was a rally in front of Fenway High School with at least 50 students and teachers. Soon the entire school, as well as the Boston Arts Academy that shares the building, was alerted to the situation and mobilized in support of Attouoman.

“At 11:45 o­n Wednesday we began organizing that day’s protest,” said Mrs. Kemp, “and we had to get all their parents’ permission” to have the students participate in a school-time protest. Teachers gave up their lunch breaks to call every student’s parents and inform them of the dire need to stand up for such a great teacher and role model. About 300 students marched o­n the JFK Federal Building, held signs, chanted “Free Obain!” and listened to City Councilmen Arroyo and Ross voice their support.

The Fenway High School motto is “Work hard. Be Yourself. Do the right thing.” and Mrs. Kemp feels that her students’ protest is a shining example of a community doing the right thing in the face of government wrongdoing.

“[The students protested] in a responsible way,” Attouoman said. “Their message was heard. Even if you are going to disobey the law, do it peacefully so that the opposition does not have a reason to put us o­n the defensive for protesting.”

Attouoman feels that he was let out because of the students’ protesting.

“They rejected my requested release o­n Tuesday, telling me I was to be deported the next day. Then the students protested, and they released me o­n Thursday,” he said. “They can jail people like this because they know the public is not aware of it. They released me because they didn’t want attention called to what they are doing.”

Fenway Sophomore Eladio Banks commented, “the protests made them see how great of a person he is,” although a spokeswoman for the Boston field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would not say why Attouoman was released or whether or not it had anything to do with the protest.

Even kids who have never been in his class said that they know Attouoman and often looked to him for advice or assistance with both school and non-school related issues. “He taught me more than just math. He taught me about life itself, and how to be a man,” said Fenway High 10th grader Charles Francis.

As part of an insurgent political party that later came to power in Ivory Coast, The Ivorian People’s Front, Attouoman was jailed twice in 1990 for participating in the IPF. That year, Attouoman said, was when Ivory Coast first became a multi-party country. For the 32 years, a single political party had run the country, jailing and killing anyone opposing their rule. In 1992 the IPF legally became the first oppositional party since the country’s independence. That same year Attouoman came to the U.S. o­n an “exchange visitor” visa. He began teaching elementary and middle school English and social studies at Mary Lyon two years later. Moving to Fenway High in 2000, Attouoman has known some of his students since the 2nd grade. Attouoman also teaches at the Museum of Science o­nce a week as a part of its Eye Opener program.

Here in New England, Attouoman remains involved with the Ivorian People’s Front. He founded the first local chapter of the IPF, which raises awareness through protests at the U.N., conferences at Northeastern University, and fundraisers to help the victims of the war-torn country. Just recently o­n March 25, 45 people were killed in the Ivory Coast for protesting. Attouoman’s political activism comes from his parents. His father died in 1992 from diabetes; his political affiliation barred him from receiving proper medical care. His mother still lives in the unstable West African country.

While in jail, Attouoman met “plenty of others without criminal records.” His cellmate, Ziggy, who wants to return to his native Poland, was in jail for 4 months before Attouoman got there and is still being held simply for missing a meeting. “They find ways to hold you longer than they’re allowed,” explained Attouoman, “by driving you handcuffed in the back of a van to New York, but when you get to La Guardia they turn around and say the flight was cancelled.” This happened to immigrants from Ghana and Columbia that Attouoman knew. They held Ziggy because his papers said he was going to be sent to Haiti. “When I make a mistake, they jail me for three months. When they make a mistake, they jail you for three more months,” Attouoman said.

Attouoman is currently awaiting a response to his motion for deferred action o­n deportation and checking in o­nce a month under his order of supervision. Despite releasing him from jail, the Department of Homeland Security still plans to deport him without just cause or hearing his case.

Other articles by Jon Tucker.

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