The girl killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis final week served on the board of her son’s faculty, which linked to documents encouraging mother and father to monitor ICE and directing them to coaching.
The documents shed new light on Renee Good’s connection to efforts to monitor and doubtlessly disrupt ICE operations – an affiliation that federal officers have made clear is on the middle of their evaluation into the lethal incident that occurred as she partially blocked ICE brokers in the road along with her SUV.
But 4 authorized specialists who reviewed the documents for NCS mentioned they largely describe nonviolent civil disobedience ways practiced at American protests for generations – removed from the sinister depiction of extremism and home terrorism portrayed by Trump administration officers like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Vice President JD Vance.
“There’s nothing in there that suggests attacking ICE agents or engaging in any other form of physical harm or property damage,” mentioned Timothy Zick, a professor at William and Mary Law School who wrote a e book on protest legislation. “This is authoritarianism 101 where you blame the dissenters and the activists for causing their own death.”
At least six federal prosecutors in Minneapolis resigned Tuesday over stress from the Trump administration to focus their probe on the actions of Good and people round her, in accordance to an individual briefed on the matter.
One of the documents linked by the varsity seems to be a message to mother and father dated December 16 that begins, “Thank you to families who have been on ICE watch, helping to protect their neighbors.”
The observe hyperlinks to a separate coaching doc with guides on getting whistles to alert neighbors to ICE raids and make contact with data for a faculty guardian providing “noncooperation training.”
“ICE are untrained bullies looking for easy targets. Neighbors showing up have saved lives,” that coaching doc reads.
Another information linked to in the coaching doc stresses nonviolent responses to ICE brokers, whereas additionally encouraging a refusal to “comply with demands, requests, and orders.” It suggests “creative tactics,” noting that “Crowds, props, traffic, and noise can make detentions difficult, sometimes ICE vehicles can’t move (‘whoops!’).” It doesn’t particularly recommend blocking operations with a automobile.
The December 16 observe, titled “School Report,” was an merchandise on the varsity board’s assembly on that date, an agenda exhibits – a gathering that Good attended as one in every of three mother and father on the board of the Southside Family Charter School.
Records don’t point out that the board voted on the message. It’s unclear whether or not it was extra extensively shared with households at Southside, a small constitution faculty with a protracted historical past of progressive activism. Neither the varsity nor different board members who served with Good responded to messages from NCS.
Two sources acquainted with the varsity mentioned the “School Report” message appeared related to previous newsletters shared with mother and father, however neither was on the e-mail record on the time to affirm if it was despatched out.
The “School Report” message was uploaded to the varsity’s public Google Drive about two weeks into the federal operation ramping up immigration enforcement actions in the Minneapolis space, which federal officers had launched to goal the area’s Somali neighborhood.
Good was partially blocking a avenue along with her SUV on Wednesday as ICE brokers operated in the realm. An ICE officer who was filming Good shot her after she began to speed up her SUV. Videos of the lethal interplay present that Good was turning her vehicle away from the agent as she pulled ahead, nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not she made contact with him earlier than he fired.
Federal officers have claimed with out offering proof that Good was partaking in “domestic terrorism” and had been “stalking agents all day long,” whereas some state and native lawmakers have decried that rhetoric as false and incendiary.
Good’s relations have mentioned that she and her spouse had come from dropping off their son earlier that morning at Southside, a few mile and a half from the place Good was shot.
Good’s spouse, Becca Good, mentioned in an announcement final week that the couple had “stopped to support our neighbors,” including, “We had whistles. They had guns.”
Legal specialists who spoke to NCS mentioned it was troubling that federal officers appeared to be focusing on low-level violations by protesters as an alternative of the taking pictures of Good itself.
Gregory Magarian, a professor and First Amendment skilled at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, mentioned that the noncooperation ways described in the information may doubtlessly violate some legal guidelines relying on the context of the scenario. But general, he mentioned, the doc endorsed normal nonviolent protest actions that don’t benefit an investigation by federal legislation enforcement.
“If the FBI has an inkling of investigating the protest organizers, it should read that and say, ‘OK, there’s not a fruitful path of inquiry here. Nothing about that raises red flags, nothing about that raises alarms, we should get back to doing our job,’” Magarian mentioned. The concept that the company would examine protesters as an alternative of using lethal power is “appalling and really dangerous,” he added.
Lauren Bonds, the chief director of the National Police Accountability Project, added that makes an attempt to examine activists and protesters seem to have “the goal of trying to justify the officer’s conduct.”
Good joined the Southside faculty board in August 2025, a number of months after she moved to Minneapolis along with her spouse and six-year-old son, in accordance to board assembly notes. Her management function on the faculty has not been beforehand reported.
Southside, an elementary faculty that was based in 1972, had 111 college students enrolled final 12 months, in accordance to a faculty board doc. It affords programming like pupil journeys to the South to research the historical past of the Civil Rights Movement and “hands-on experience planting and harvesting” as a part of a curriculum on environmental points.
“The heart of the school’s mission, social justice education, is woven into every subject and grade level,” an annual report learn. “By addressing social justice issues at an early age, the school encourages children to see themselves as citizen activists who can change the world and also helps children avoid internalizing the effects of discrimination.”
The documents present that Good was deeply concerned with the varsity neighborhood, at the same time as a comparatively latest arrival. Good usually attended board conferences, with information of 1 assembly noting that “Renee had some questions about the future growth of the school.”
The similar faculty bulletin that inspired activism to monitor ICE final month additionally shared how Good and her spouse had “brought pots for us to paint” to a faculty occasion: “We will sell them at our plant sale in the spring. They look beautiful!”
Rashad Rich, a former bodily training trainer at Southside who taught Good’s son in his class, mentioned the couple have been acquainted faces on the faculty.
When they dropped off their son, he “would say goodbye several times before they could leave, and then they would drive around the front of the school so they had a window where he could see them,” Rich informed NCS. “They’d wave. They were just awesome parents.”
In the wake of Good’s taking pictures, Rich mentioned, academics and employees members on the faculty have had their names and addresses posted on social media.
“They’re getting threats,” he mentioned. “It’s a scary thing right now.”
This story has been up to date with extra data.