DES MOINES, Iowa — On Tuesday, hundreds of students walked out of middle and high schools across the city to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention of Ian Andre Roberts, the now-former superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district.
In the afternoon, several dozen students gathered at the State Capitol, calling for Roberts’ release from the Sioux City jail where he’s being held, and holding signs reading “Radical Empathy,” a tagline he frequently used.
“I don’t think anyone really cares about the fact he’s illegal,” said Gabriel Doyle Scar, 17, who helped organize the protest. “We’re just sad about the fact that an extremely nice man that supported us heavily and really strongly is now taken away from us.”
During rush hour that night, roughly 20 people displayed a banner from a bridge over the interstate that cuts across the center of the city reading “Free Dr. Roberts,” as dozens of cars and large trucks honked in support as they passed underneath.
Roberts had been the superintendent of Des Moines Public Schools when ICE arrested him early Friday, accusing him of being in the country without authorization. ICE has said he tried to evade arrest and was found with a loaded gun in his district-issued car, a hunting knife and $3,000 in cash. At a news conference earlier this week, his lawyer, Alfredo Parrish, didn’t discuss those allegations. Through Parrish, Roberts submitted a letter of resignation Tuesday, writing that he didn’t want to be a distraction while he tried to stop his deportation.
But neither his resignation nor the unanswered questions about his case have quelled the protests in Des Moines, the left-leaning capital of a Republican-led state. Instead, Roberts’ arrest has sparked a moment of mass mobilization in a sleepy city where protests are relatively rare.
“It’s very unusual,” Dave Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University, said of the daily protests, adding that for many, Roberts’ detainment was the first major moment in which the recent wave of ICE arrests truly hit home.
“This is a moment where people can express support for somebody who they value, somebody who’s an important part of the community, and be protesting against what ICE is doing more broadly,” he said.
Makhani Scearcy, 20, a college student standing with classmates outside the capitol Tuesday, made a similar point. “Definitely people truly love Dr. Roberts,” she said, “but he’s just one puzzle piece of just how insane things have been.”
Republicans in Iowa have called for investigations of the district’s hiring practices. U.S. Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican whose district includes Des Moines, said he is seeking further information from the Department of Homeland Security about the case, and he released a redacted excerpt of the May 2024 removal order for Roberts signed by a judge.
“Many of us in the community knew Dr. Roberts and trusted him, which makes it hurt even more that he spent so long providing us false information,” Nunn said this week on KCCI-TV of Des Moines.
Yet, in interviews with two dozen parents, colleagues and students this week, many expressed strong support for him, even as new questions about his background have trickled out.
“We were told by the current administration that they were going to get rid of people that didn’t belong here; that’s not what they’re doing,” said Justin Peters, a high school baseball coach in the district. “They’re getting rid of high-class people that are part of our community.”
Roberts, a former Olympian from Guyana, worked his way up in leadership for school districts across the country, from Washington, D.C., to California. After Des Moines hired him in 2023, he became a fixture at community events, nearly always dressed in flashy suits with sneakers, and the first person of color to lead the state’s most diverse district. He was arrested hours before he was scheduled to participate in a “fun run” with second graders in his district.
School district staff members at the protests recalled Roberts’ coming to read to children for hours, visiting classrooms, helping students with scavenger hunts and marching in parades with them.
“My kindergartner knows his superintendent,” said Amber Graeber, a Des Moines parent and teacher. “I don’t think very many kids can say that.”
On Friday evening, more than 400 people packed into Corinthians Baptist Church on the edge of downtown Des Moines, spilling into the hallway and the kitchen.
On Sunday, the Rev. Jonathan Whitfield, the church’s senior pastor, addressed the situation during his service, defending Roberts as someone who “left a legacy of goodness” in every education job he had.
Roughly 100 protesters held another demonstration outside the federal building Monday afternoon. It was the day the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners revoked his license and legal authority to serve as superintendent.
ICE said in a statement that Roberts arrived on a student visa in 1999, but according to Coppin State University in Baltimore, he graduated from there in 1998 and competed in NCAA track competitions even earlier. Roberts “was a standout scholar and athlete during his undergraduate studies,” Coppin State President Anthony L. Jenkins said in a statement.
Roberts has said he attended six other universities in some capacity: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, Morgan State University, St. John’s University, Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and Trident University International, an online school. St. John’s confirmed he earned a master’s degree in social studies from the institution in 2000. Morgan State said he attended as a graduate student for five years but didn’t earn a degree from it. And MIT said it had no record of Roberts’ having attended. The others didn’t respond to requests for comment.
According to the school district, Roberts had provided a résumé to the search firm that recruited him falsely stating that he had earned a doctorate from Morgan State, but the firm had him correct it before it submitted it to the Des Moines School Board. The district said it was aware he didn’t finish his doctorate at Morgan State.
“The Des Moines School Board is also a victim of deception by Dr. Roberts, one on a growing list that includes our students and teachers, our parents and community, our elected officials and Iowa’s Board of Educational Examiners, and others,” Jackie Norris, the school board chair, said in a statement Wednesday.
Roberts had indicated on his I-9 form that he was a citizen when he was hired two years ago, and he provided a driver’s license and a Social Security card as proof, district officials said. The district has said it was unaware that Roberts received a final order of removal last year, and it said DHS provided a copy Monday afternoon.
Parrish, Roberts’ attorney, declined to say Tuesday when Roberts first came to the United States and under what status or what his legal clearance to work in the country was when he was hired by Des Moines Public Schools. He couldn’t be reached for further comment.