Popular teacher wins support, freedom
The day after about 300 students rallied outside a federal office on behalf of a Fenway High School teacher jailed since November on an immigration violation, Obain Attouoman was released from the Suffolk County Jail yesterday -- and promptly went to the school auditorium to thank a crowd of sign-waving, whooping youngsters.
Hugging students and holding a bouquet of orange roses bestowed on him, the 42-year-old math teacher brushed away tears and expressed his gratitude.
"I cannot even believe I'm standing here today, and I would not be standing here if it wasn't for you," he said before a sea of smiling young faces. "I want you to know that people refer to us as teachers, but we learn from you more than we teach you."
Then, displaying the self-deprecating humor and approachable manner that has made him a favorite teacher, Attouoman fielded questions from students.
"How does it feel to be out?" shouted Ian Powell, a 16-year-old sophomore at Boston Arts Academy, which is housed in the same building as Fenway High.
"It feels good to be out, but it feels great to be here," he said, prompting loud cheers.
"Are you going to come back and teach?" asked a youngster.
Attouoman grinned. "I'm ready to do it now," he said.
While Attouoman has won his freedom, he is still going to be deported in a matter of weeks to the Ivory Coast, his homeland, according to Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for the Boston field office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Bruce Chadbourne, director of the field office, merely exercised his discretion by releasing Attouoman, said Grenier. "[Attouoman] is still under a final order of removal," because of a 2001 ruling by an immigration judge, she said.
Grenier declined to say why Chadbourne released Attouoman or whether it had anything to do with the rally outside the immigration office Wednesday.
Susan Cohen, a lawyer with Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, which has represented Attouoman free of charge since his arrest, filed a request yesterday with Immigration and Customs to delay the deportation while she fights it. "We're going to keep the pressure on them," she said. "This is a community issue. Obain needs to be here."
US Representative Michael E. Capuano, who has appealed to federal immigration officials on behalf of Attouoman, could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Attouoman came to the United States in 1992 on an "exchange visitor" visa, according to Cohen. He had worked as a teacher in the Ivory Coast but was jailed twice in 1990 for his involvement in the Ivorian People's Front, an insurgent political party that later came to power.
About two years after his arrival, he began teaching at the Mary Lyon School and moved to Fenway High around 2000.
In 1994, he applied for political asylum, saying he feared for his life if he returned home, citing his past political activities. Seven years later, he received a notice to appear in US Immigration Court in Boston on June 7, 2001, to justify his application for asylum. But the date of the hearing was handwritten, Cohen said, and Attouoman thought it said July 7.
"It was an honest mistake," Attouoman said yesterday.
Because he missed the hearing, the judge ordered him deported in absentia. He hired a lawyer from another firm to file a motion to rescind the order, but Immigration Judge Eliza C. Klein denied the request without comment. His lawyer appealed the denial to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which dismissed it in February 2002, Cohen said.
Attouoman, who lives in Everett, is separated from his wife and has no children. He was arrested when he tried to retrieve his car after it was towed from Fenway High last November, Cohen said.
Immigration officials, said 16-year-old Jessica Rodriguez, are "treating him like he's some kind of criminal, and there are many criminals out there that they don't do nothing about."
