Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Like most people, I feel bombarded by “Back to School” ads, but this year I am left with the question: Will the 13,000 children being held in the detention camps in the United States be going back to school? Are there licensed teachers teaching the children? If any of those children have special needs, are they being met? Are children allowed any recreational time? If the answers are no, then are several U.S. education laws being broken?

I am a licensed teacher, and I am haunted by this situation. I recently read several eyewitness accounts written by a pediatrician, a lawyer, the Brookings Institute, two reporters and Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. They witnessed abandoned toddlers, malnourished children living in squalor and wearing soiled clothing, being served outdated food and filthy drinking water, children directed to share lice-infested combs, and not enough beds (therefore, children sleeping on cement floors). Even our local humane societie...