Beloved Teacher Facing Deportation Wins Reprieve

March 4, 2005 -- -- Obain Attouoman, a Boston special education teacher who was facing deportation because he missed a hearing four years ago, has been granted a reprieve, thanks to the support of hundreds of his students and fellow teachers.

The students and teachers had held numerous rallies outside the Boston offices of the Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and on Thursday six of Attouoman's Fenway High School students met with Massachussetts Sen. John Kerry.

The former Democratic presidential candidate then filed a bill to stop the deportation of the math teacher.

Attouoman, a native of Ivory Coast who had been ordered to leave the country by today, and his students learned Thursday evening that the teacher was granted a reprieve until early 2007.

"I made it a rule of mine to hope as long as you are alive that hopefully something will happen that will make Homeland Security officials change their mind," Attouoman said.

Attouoman left the Ivory Coast in 1992, seeking political asylum. But he missed a critical deportation hearing four years ago, was jailed for three months and lost an appeal.

His situation brought a great outpouring of support from his students and colleagues, and that brought a response from many Massachusetts politicians. But until Kerry's action on Thursday, nothing had changed the mind of Homeland Security officials.

Attouoman said what surprised him most was the generosity of so many people -- and the suspicion of others.

"Their determination to have me leave the country, especially for somebody who has no criminal record and [does] not represent a threat to their society," he said.

Attouoman, who has taught in the Boston public schools for more than a decade, missed a hearing with a judge on his application for political asylum in June 2001 because he says he misread the handwritten date on the notice he received.

After more than three years of trying to get a new hearing, he has been ordered to leave the country by today. He was originally ordered to leave by Feb. 11, but after hundreds of students, parents and fellow teachers demonstrated outside the Boston office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Feb. 9, he was granted a three-week reprieve.

Immigration officials said the reprieve was to allow Attouoman and his lawyers to try to find a country other than Ivory Coast, where he believes his life would be in danger, that would allow him to enter.