As the nation watches the Tucson Unified School District's spiral into disarray, hundreds of students have walked out of their Tucson schools today in a coordinated protest against the banishment of the district's acclaimed Mexican American Studies program.
Pouring into the downtown Tucson area from Pueblo, Cholla and Tucson high schools, among other institutions, the students brought their march to the offices of floundering Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) administrators. In recent days, administrators and board members have issued a series of conflicting and inaccurate statements and carried out the extreme actions of confiscating books in front of children. Last week, a recently hired assistant superintendent from Texas made a troubling call for the deeply rooted Tucson students -- many of whom trace their ancestors to the town founders -- to "go to Mexico" to study their history.
Supporters of the Ethnic Studies/Mexican American Studies program, which was terminated indefinitely on January 10th by the school board, launched walkouts last week and have vowed to step up their actions for a large-scale walkout, teach-in and launch of a "School of Ethnic Studies" on Tuesday, January 24th.
In a district with over 60 percent of the students coming from Mexican American backgrounds, the TUSD board "dismantled its Mexican-American studies program, packed away its offending books, shuttled its students into other classes," according to an editorial in the New York Times on Sunday, because "it was blackmailed into doing so."
The New York Times referred to the extremist measures of Arizona state superintendent of public instruction John Huppenthal on January 10th, who threatened to withhold millions of dollars if TUSD didn't terminate the nationally acclaimed program immediately.
As her Tucson school district prepares to celebrate the 140th anniversary of its founding by Mexican American immigrant Estevan Ochoa, Cholla High School student Ahtziri Iñiguez noted that she was following the march in the footsteps of her brother, a graduate of the Mexican American Studies Program.
"I think it's very unfair that people here don't let us learn about our own culture," she said. "My brother took (Mexican American Studies) classes his junior year and he would go home and discuss with my Mom and interested me in education, so I knew I wanted to take these classes."
Less than two months away from the anniversary celebration of Arizona native and United Farm Worker leader Cesar Chavez, Iñiguez added: "We did this walk out to prove if you want something you should fight for what you believe in, because if you don't do anything, nothing will change."
Chavez had noted: "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours."
Known as the "Sheriff Arpaio of Ethnic Studies," Arizona education chief John Huppenthal defended his campaign slogan to "stop la raza" in an extraordinary Democracy Now debate on TV last week. The Tea Party activist Huppenthal has referred to Mexican American students as "Hitler Jugend," and raised concerns across the nation about possible criminal behavior last summer when he openly misrepresented the results of an independent audit that praised the Mexican American Studies program and found it in compliance with Arizona's bizarre Ethnic Studies law.
State Rep. Sally Gonzales introduced a bill to repeal the Ethnic Studies crackdown last week. A similar bill to repeal Arizona's notorious SB 1070 immigration law was also being introduced.
Instead of surrendering to Huppenthal's crackdown, many community leaders in Tucson called on the Tucson Unified School District board to join a federal court suit against the state and summon the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to follow up their investigation of Arpaio and investigate Huppenthal for racial profiling, hate crimes, fraud and even extortion.
Last month, when the DOJ charged Arpaio with "chronic culture of disregard for basic legal and constitutional obligations" and a "widespread pattern or practice of... activities that discriminate against Latinos," Tucson supporters of Ethnic Studies wonder if similar charges could be made for Attorney General Tom Horne and Superintendent Huppenthal, who have invoked violent imagery and pathologically singled out only Tucson's Mexican American Studies program.
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So, what's the difference when teaching Mexican-American history?
http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/76613877
If the MAS course is so invaluable, why were the investigators not allowed to review the materials or talk to the students?
Why was so little work submitted for the court to review? Why were the complete textbooks not made available? Here is a list of the textbooks along with some propaganda from our neighbors.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/18/arizona-banned-mexican-american-books?newsfeed=true
The proponents say it is racist not to let them teach the class, but a quick glance over the titles tells of an agenda of teaching victim hood and separatism. That brings the embodiment of racism with it.
The materials are hardly fit for anyone studying at less than college level and not for polite company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6obixztvgII
The district had every reason to ban the course. No other ethnic studies program violates the parts of the law that MAS does or teaches overthrow of the US government.
Is Mexico attempting to prepare a Fifth Column in our own schools? There is little other reason to demand a course like this.
They refused to produce documents and outright lied about their availability.
Then we have the deception of the department head, Arce (what a fitting name) who warned teachers of the audits so suddenly there were no class, or just a film shown that day and other situations the auditors felt were staged since all 6 classrooms were supposed to be on the same subjects yet none were.
Thanks for the links! Very informative.
People power! Keep fighting for your education students... you will prevail.
La lucha sigue y sigue.
http://westernconnections.com/discrimination.html
It's as shameful as the actions against the MAS program!
Tom Horne and John Huppenthal also are deeply involved in persecuting teachers who speak with accents. Although the state signed an agreement with the US Dept of Education and the Justice Dept to stop persecuting teachers with accents, the dirty deeds are being done by local school boards. Check out how Gilbert Public Schools forced a black teacher, who speaks with an accent from her native Cameroon, to resign. The amazing thing is, Gilbert Public Schools had helped this teacher with immigration matters when she originally was hired! This teacher has a Masters Degree from Arizona State University, but when Tom Horne started beating the drum against teachers with accents, she became collateral damage. By having Gilbert Public Schools do the dirty work, John Huppenthal and the Arizona Dept of Education can claim they won't fire those teachers. Court decision about discrimination based on race and national origin in this case is online at http://westernconnections.com/discrimination.html