As expected, the Des Moines school board placed Dr. Ian Roberts on unpaid leave at an emergency meeting last evening. Fox-9 (Minneapolis) reports,
Now former Des Moines Superintendent Dr. Ian Roberts has lost his education license after his arrest by ICE. The school board voted Monday to move Roberts to unpaid leave. The board is now set to move forward with ending his contract.
So much for “radical empathy.” Roberts reportedly made close to $300,000 a year running the state’s largest public school district. Fox-9 reports that, absent new information, the board could fire Roberts as early as tonight.
He can appeal, of course, but I think he has bigger problems at the moment, including his upcoming deportation to Guyana.
Little by little we are putting together the story of how Roberts managed to slip through the cracks. Fox-9 reports,
The board also says Roberts said he was a citizen and provided a Social Security number on hiring documents.
Which may explain how Roberts managed to become an active, registered voter in the state of Maryland. National Fox News reports that Roberts is registered as a Democrat. Of course.
On the other side of the aisle, the Des Moines Register reports that Republicans are pressing.
Republicans are pressing Iowa Democrats over their positions on Des Moines Public Schools Superintendent Ian Roberts’ recent arrest and detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, putting federal immigration policy at the forefront of the 2026 midterms.
2026? Seem a little early for that. I’m much more interested in this item, also from the Register,
Iowa GOP lawmakers call for Des Moines probe after Superintendent Ian Roberts’ ICE arrest
How on earth did we get here? Some future legislation may be in the cards,
Republican state lawmakers, who control the majority in both chambers of the Iowa Legislature, are signaling an appetite to strengthen school hiring protocols in the wake of Roberts’ detainment.
Rep. Austin Harris, R-Moulton, said in a Facebook post that the allegations represented a “failure in oversight that cannot be tolerated in our education system.”
It seems that there are two possible scenarios here: 1) Roberts provided fake documents that indicated he was a U.S. citizen, fooling the district, or 2) the district understood his situation and just counted on not being found out by the public.
Either way, we have an even bigger scandal on our hands than first thought.
