WASHINGTON — During a ribbon-cutting ceremony for an extension to an elementary school in the upscale Glover Park area last Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser was in high spirits. She observed students performing a scene from the musical “Oz” and spent some time discussing the importance of investing in education and inspiring students to return to school.

Shortly after taking photos with school leaders and local officials, she stepped into the gymnasium, where she faced a media storm. Reporters bombarded her with questions on a challenging issue: the repercussions of President Donald Trump’s attempts to gain control over the city. All 14 questions directed at Bowser revolved around Trump’s executive order, which included inquiries such as:

• “There’s been video of ICE arrests spreading across social media… What’s your reaction when you’re seeing these videos in the city?”
• “Can you tell us how you feel about the additional National Guard troops coming from other states… Do you feel this has usurped your authority even more?”
• “How are you reflecting on this moment? It seems like your potential concerns about this administration are starting to be realized?”

While Bowser tried to maintain an air of normalcy ahead of the public schools opening on Monday, it was clear the school year would not start routinely. Federal agents have established checkpoints at various city intersections and have been conducting immigration enforcement actions. Food delivery drivers have been forcibly detained and arrested in the open by masked Department of Homeland Security agents. National Guard soldiers, dressed in Army fatigues, are stationed outside Nationals games and at metro stations.

The White House says there are more than 2,000 agents, officers and soldiers involved in the operation, and more than 900 arrests have been made.

The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement assured NBC News last week that agents wouldn’t be present at D.C. schools on opening day, though they might visit campuses in the future.

As the mayor, Bowser holds the highest-ranking position in D.C.’s government. However, with Trump’s executive order declaring an emergency to reinstate “law and order” in the capital, her limited authority has become more apparent, emphasizing the city’s constrained autonomy due to its non-state status. She wants Homeland Security Investigations agents to stop hiding their identities during operations by covering their faces. She also feels the National Guard presence is unwarranted and desires their withdrawal. Yet, all she can do is request.

So she’s focused on the things she can control.

“Monday is my favorite day of the year,” Bowser told a room full of educators at Phelps Ace High School in Northeast Washington on Wednesday.

There are more than 52,000 students in D.C.’s 117 public schools.

Even with the city on edge, Bowser told the educators to avoid the elephant in the room when the bell rings on Monday.

“I want everyone to know whose job politics is in this room,” Bowser asserted. “Whose job is it? It’s mine. It’s mine. It’s mine. I’m the only one. It’s not yours. Alright?”

She told teachers to “trust that I’m going to do the right thing for all of us.”

But that’s not reassuring to parents, who are grappling with how to do the right thing for their kids.

Alicia Swenson has four children in D.C. schools, and she and her husband were planning to let their sixth and seventh grade children commute to school on the Metro by themselves. Now, though, Swenson said she and her husband will to escort their kids to their school in Northwest D.C. because the National Guard is making their younger daughter uncomfortable.

The last time she saw a large law enforcement presence in D.C. was during the 2020 racial justice protests, Swenson said. This time, though, is harder to explain to her children.

“Back then, I think we said, ‘There’s peaceful protesting, and that is people’s right. It’s a good thing to do to stand up when you see something wrong,’” Swenson said during a Friday interview. “But this? I have no idea what to say to her. It’s very hard for us to explain what’s going on right now.”

At a back-to-school event in the West End neighborhood on Friday, parent Melissa Neil said that while the National Guard surge can be “understandable,” it was also “a little concerning.” Neil is a citizen but immigrated from the Dominican Republic, and she noted that even if someone is a citizen, “you still look as an immigrant.”

“You never really know what are the standards,” Neil said. “Even if you have your documentation, they can still identify you as you are not. So it is concerning that you’re with your kids, and they can pull you out.”

Nearly every day, a video goes viral of immigration enforcement actions on the streets of Washington, after the Department of Justice directed Bowser to order the city’s police department to assist in immigration enforcement operations and to comply with database inquiries and requests for information from any federal law enforcement entity.

At the same back-to-school event, Louis Limes said he has “mixed emotions” about sending his daughters back to school amid the surge of National Guard and federal agents.

“If they’re out here for the safety of our children, cool, but from the last couple of days, we’ve seen that they went over their boundaries as far as protecting and serving the streets, harassing, physically abusing citizens,” Limes said.

Itzetht Testa was shopping with her children in Columbia Heights on Thursday, and she said that although she served 25 years in the Air Force, she disagreed with the National Guard in the city’s streets. She voted for Trump but disapproves of his first few months so much that she says she will never vote for a Republican again. Now, she said her seventh grade son felt threatened seeing the National Guard.

“If they’re using it for immigration purpose, I don’t care for that,” she said of the National Guard near schools. “It should not be used for that.”

“I will always vote independent from now on,” Testa added.

While DC residents have yelled, taunted, and protested against the federal agents and National Guard in their neighborhoods over the past 14 days, when students get to the front doors of their schools on Monday, Bowser said Wednesday at the Phelps pep rally that parents, neighbors, and friends will be there “clapping” them in, to show the city is cheering them on.

“We’re all going to be standing shoulder to shoulder with them,” Bowser said.