Thread: ACTION!!! Reporter Assaulted at MEChA Charter School

INVASION USA
Public tax dollars
fund racist school
K-8 institution backed by groups
seeking to retake Southwest U.S.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: June 1, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


Principal Marcos Aguilar

Taxpayers along with radical groups that aim to reconquer the Southwestern U.S. are funding a Hispanic K-8 school led by a principal who believes in racial segregation and sees the institution as part of a larger cultural "struggle."

The Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School was chartered by the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2001, local KABC radio host Doug McIntyre – who has been investigating the school for the past three weeks – told WND.

Among the school's supporters are the National Council of La Raza Charter School Development Initiative; Raza Development Fund, Inc.; and the Pasadena City College chapter of MeCHA, or Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan.

"La Raza," or "the Race," is a designation by many Mexicans who see themselves as part of a transnational ethnic group they hope will one day reclaim Aztlan, the mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. In Chicano folklore, Aztlan includes California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and parts of Colorado and Texas.

The school teaches the ancient Nahutal language of the Aztecs and its base-20 math system. Another language of emphasis is Mandarin, even though no Chinese attend.

MEChA, founded at U.C. Santa Barbara in 1969, has the stated goal of returning the American Southwest to Mexico.

As WorldNetDaily reported Sunday, students identifying themselves as members of MEChA at Pasadena City College said they stole 5,000 copies of the campus newspaper because it did not cover their high school conference.

One of the charter school's listed donors, a Nissan/Infinity dealer in Glendale, Calif., asked to be removed from the website after hearing McIntyre's broadcast about the school yesterday, the host told WND.

Marcos Aguilar, the school's founder and principal, said in an interview with an online educational journal, Teaching to Change L.A., he doesn't think much of the Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated American schools.

Aguilar simply doesn't want to integrate with white institutions.

"We don't want to drink from a white water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts," he said.

The issue of civil rights, Aguilar continued, "is all within the box of white culture and white supremacy. We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger."

Ultimately, he said, the "white way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction. And so it isn't about an argument of joining neo liberalism, it's about us being able, as human beings, to surpass the barrier."

Aguilar said his school is not a response to problems in the public school system, as it's available only to about 150 families.

"We consider this a resistance, a starting point, like a fire in a continuous struggle for our cultural life, for our community and we hope it can influence future struggle," he said. "We hope that it can organize present struggle and that as we organize ourselves and our educational and cultural autonomy, we have the time to establish a foundation with which to continue working and impact the larger system."

On its website, the school describes itself as being "dedicated to providing urban children of immigrant native families an excellent education founded upon their own language, cultural values and global realities."

"We draw from traditional indigenous Mexican forms of social organization known as the Kalpulli," the website says, "founded upon the principles of serving collective interests, assembling an informed polity, and honestly administering and executing collective decisions."

Born in Mexicali in Baja California, Aguilar attended schools on the border in Calexico, a farm worker community.

"We grew up with the knowledge that in Arizona, in Yuma, Arizona, everything was black and white," he said in the journal interview. "The dogs and Mexicans drank from one spot and the white people drank from the other one."

Teachers in the Los Angeles area, he contended, have little regard for the culture of Hispanic children.

By learning the Aztec tongue of Nahuatl, he said, students "will be able to understand our own ancestral culture and our customs and traditions that are so imbued in the language."

Said Aguilar:

"The importance of Nahutal is also academic because Nahuatl is based on a math system, which we are also practicing. We teach our children how to operate a base 20 mathematical system and how to understand the relationship between the founders and their bodies, what the effects of astronomical forces and natural forces on the human body and the human psyche, our way of thinking and our way of expressing ourselves. And so the language is much more than just being able to communicate. When we teach Nahuatl, the children are gaining a sense of identity that is so deep, it goes beyond whether or not they can learn a certain number of vocabulary words in Nahuatl. It's really about them understanding themselves as human beings. Everything we do here is about relationships."

KABC's McIntyre, noting the school's emphasis on Aztec language and culture combined with test scores that fall below the L.A. school system's meager results, told WND he believes the school is bordering on "educational malpractice."

"What high schools are they preparing kids to go to?" he asked.

"The whole multi-culture-diversity argument is blowing up in our faces," McIntyre said. "What's lost is, we have a culture, too. But when you defend American culture – which I believe is the most diverse in the world – you are branded a xenophobe."

The school has no whites, blacks or Asians, McIntyre pointed out. According to statistics he found, 91.3 percent are Hispanic and the rest Native American or Eskimo.

McIntyre said he was teaching a writing class at UCLA in 1993 when Aguilar, as a student, participated in a 50-day student takeover after Chicano activist and labor leader Caesar Chavez died. School officials eventually gave in to demands to create a Chicano-studies major and agreed to pay some $50,000 in damages caused by the protesters.

Aguilar repeatedly has refused to come on McIntyre's program, the host said.

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/9309044/detail.html

District, Police Investigate Report Of Attack Near School
POSTED: 5:54 pm PDT June 1, 2006
UPDATED: 6:02 pm PDT June 1, 2006

LOS ANGELES -- A local radio reporter was assaulted Thursday while leaving a Los Angeles charter school, a station official said.

Video http://www.nbc4.tv/video/9309056/detail.html

The Los Angeles School District and Los Angeles Police Department are investigating the allegations.

The reporter, Sandy Wells of KABC radio, was not hurt, said station spokesman Steve Sheldon.

Wells was leaving the campus of Academia Semillas Del Pueblo, 4736 Huntington Drive, after interviewing the principal when a car came around the corner, jumped the curb and the driver tried to run him down, Sheldon said.

Wells dodged the car, but the driver, a man who appeared to be in his mid-20s, got out and tackled him, taking away his tape recorder, he said.

"He managed to tackle me and push me into a car," Wells said. "He demanded my recording equipment, which I had over my shoulder. He was struggling to grab that. Finally, I was able to eject the tape, and I gave it to him."

Wells was at the school, which is under the LAUSD's jurisdiction, to interview administrators and parents.

The incident was reported to police, Sheldon said, adding that it is believed to be linked to the station's reporting on the school.

The school issued a written statement, but did not address the allegations. The statement said that talk radio has been critical of the school and created a false perception that the school exercising racist policies.

LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer said the district's board approved the school's curriculum. He said the district has received several reports about the school.

"We are already investigating the school and we're going to check it out very thoroughly, Romer said. "What I hear is not good, but I don't want to prejudge."

The schools contract with the LAUSD is up for renewal in December

Mophead,

this is the interview that your article was based on. I had posted it on a different thread.
http://www.kabc.com/mcintyre/goout.asp? ... uilar.html

http://images.radcity.net/5147/1457009.jpg

La Raza's Own School in LA?
More>>




La Raza's Principal?
On Brown vs. Board of Education, Topeka

"If Brown was just about letting Black people into a White school, well we don’t care about that anymore. We don’t necessarily want to go to White schools. What we want to do is teach ourselves, teach our children the way we have of teaching. We don’t want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts. We don’t need a White water fountain. So the whole issue of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all within the box of White culture and White supremacy. We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger. And ultimately the White way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction. And so it isn’t about an argument of joining neo liberalism, it’s about us being able, as human beings, to surpass the barrier."
- Marcos Aguilar, founder and principal of La Academia del Pueblo
More>>

Marcos Aguilar is the founder and principal of La Academia Semillas del Pueblo, a charter school in El Sereno. Maribel Santiago, a UCLA undergraduate, interviewed him for TCLA.
TCLA: Where did you grow up and go to school?

MA: I was born in Mexicali, Baja California Norte in Mexico and I attended schools on the border in Calexico, a farm worker community. There was the Mexican town and the White town was like 10 miles away and another one 20 miles away. We grew up with the knowledge that in Arizona, in Yuma, Arizona, everything was Black and White. The dogs and Mexicans drank from one spot and the White people drank from the other one. I think growing up amongst Mexicans, you get values and manners at home. One of my grandmothers raised me and taught me those values.

TCLA: Did the educators at your school demonstrate that they valued your language and culture?

MA: No, they demonstrated that they did not. They demonstrated at times apathy and at times hostility towards the languages spoken that are non-English. I never witnessed an act of respect to the students’ culture.

TCLA: Have the educators you have observed here in Los Angeles acted in a more culturally responsive way?

MA: Sure, some teachers do, the majority don’t. The majority of teachers consider their position a 9-5 job which they execute as quickly as possible, and for which they expect a high level of compensation. We basically have a situation where outsiders are teaching a community’s children, with no regard to the community itself, with no regard for the ultimate outcome of their actions with the children, with no regard for anything past that one year that they are with them. Teachers step into this role fully expecting a three-month vacation or expecting tons of extra pay when they are off. They fully expect to be separate from the students so they want to commute to get to the inner city.

TCLA: How do you explain these relationships?

MA: Communities as a whole just don’t control education. The system creates this political economy—a role for teachers that alienates them from the children that they are working with. Public education really is a space for the education of workers for private industries. The role of teachers is simply to perpetuate what those values are in the workplace.

TCLA: How have you tried to create a different sort of schooling experience at La Academia Semillas del Pueblo?

MA: Like anywhere in Los Angeles there’s a lot of bridges to cross and we feel that through teaching our children and giving them a good foundation of culture they will be able to understand other people’s cultures and other people’s points of view much better. One of the ways we do that is teaching them several languages. That has to be the most important element of our education. It’s not only learning reading, writing, and English, but being able to analyze the world in several languages.

TCLA: How does learning different languages impact your students?

MA: By learning Nahuatl, they will be able to understand their relationship with nature (because language is based on our human relationship with nature) and be able to understand themselves as part of something larger, not as an isolated individual. They will be able to understand our own ancestral culture and our customs and traditions that are so imbued in the language. The importance of Nahutal is also academic because Nahuatl is based on a Math system, which we are also practicing. We teach our children how to operate a base 20 mathematical system and how to understand the relationship between the founders and their bodies, what the effects of astronomical forces and natural forces on the human body and the human psyche, our way of thinking and our way of expressing ourselves. And so the language is much more than just being able to communicate. When we teach Nahuatl, the children are gaining a sense of identity that is so deep, it goes beyond whether or not they can learn a certain number of vocabulary words in Nahuatl. It’s really about them understanding themselves as human beings. Everything we do here is about relationships.

TCLA: Do you view La Academia Semillas del Pueblo as a response to the problems in our school system?

MA: No. It’s not a response because there is no way we can replace it. It’s an alternative for 150 families out of how many--a million? That’s not much of an alternative. It’s an alternative for a few people in the community. We consider this a resistance, a starting point, like a fire in a continuous struggle for our cultural life, for our community and we hope it can influence future struggle. We hope that it can organize present struggle and that as we organize ourselves and our educational and cultural autonomy, we have the time to establish a foundation with which to continue working and impact the larger system. This is the work of a parallel institution, a very liberal one, whose autonomy is very delicate. It is very easy to disorganize and destroy.

TCLA: What do you recommend to students and parents who are frustrated with schooling and want to create change?

MA: If we want anything we have to organize ourselves. We should organize with other people who share that frustration and see what we can do to solve the problem. The people have to change from an attitude of asking for things to a practice of organizing things for ourselves. We have to get away from the welfare mentality and the welfare society and more and more develop self-reliance and resolve our problems by organizing our own resources.

TCLA: Finally, what do you see as the legacy of the Brown decision?

MA: If Brown was just about letting Black people into a White school, well we don’t care about that anymore. We don’t necessarily want to go to White schools. What we want to do is teach ourselves, teach our children the way we have of teaching. We don’t want to drink from a White water fountain, we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts. We don’t need a White water fountain. So the whole issue of segregation and the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement is all within the box of White culture and White supremacy. We should not still be fighting for what they have. We are not interested in what they have because we have so much more and because the world is so much larger. And ultimately the White way, the American way, the neo liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction. And so it isn’t about an argument of joining neo liberalism, it’s about us being able, as human beings, to surpass the barrier.

Is this principle qualified to do her job?

Thanks NewMexican. If I understood ALIPAC correctly, he said to post news articles relating to the reporter's alleged assault in this thread. I missed the interview. It seems Aguilar has been radical since his days as a UCLA prof. I posted what I found about his hunger strike a few posts up. Makes for interesting reading. :P

Thanks

Originally Posted by VOATNOW1

Is this principle qualified to do her job?

It's a man and no, it doesn't seem he's qualified judging from the curriculum and the school's current ranking with the state.

http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunic ... 4372&src=0

LOS ANGELES POLICE: Radio Reporter Assaulted Near School

/noticias.info/ Los Angeles: A Los Angeles radio reporter was assaulted this morning when a man drove a sedan at the reporter, then later tried to take the reporter’s recording equipment.

Alexander (Sandy) Wells, a reporter for McIntyre in the Morning on KABC 790 AM, was calling his station around 7:30 AM when he saw a sedan coming toward him out of his peripheral vision.

"Wells at first thought, ‘Why is this guy driving so fast with all these kids around?’" said Detective Charles Markel of the Hollenbeck Detective Division. "Then he realized the car was coming for him."

Wells had just finished trying to interview parents, students, and administrators at the Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School, which was across the street from where he was standing, in the 4700 block of Huntington Drive in El Sereno.

Wells was able to get out of the way of the nondescript silver sedan and ran to his nearby car. The sedan followed him and stopped. A Hispanic man in his twenties got out of the sedan and tried to take Wells’ recording equipment, which was slung over his shoulder.

Wells was able to fend off the assailant, who drove away with only the audio tape from Wells’ recorder.

"There were a number of witnesses to this assault," said Detective Markel. "We’d like anyone who saw what happened to call us."

Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Markel at 323-526-3008. On weekends and during off-hours, call the 24-hour toll free number at 1-877-LAWFULL (529-3855).

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/article/15051.html

Reporter Attacked at Hispanic Separatist School

By Sher Zieve – On Thursday, after he had interviewed parents, students and administrators at the Los Angeles separatist Hispanic charter school Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School, reporter Sandy Wells of KABC-AM (790) radio was attacked. A man driving a sedan tried to run him down at least twice and then stole the audio tape of Wells’ interviews.

Wells had previously reported that the school teaches separatist ethics, admits only Hispanics and has no white, Asian or black students. Police Detective Charles Markel of Los Angeles’ Hollenbeck Division said: "There were a number of witnesses to this assault. We'd like anyone who saw what happened to call us."

Academia Semillas del Pueblo Charter School’s website advises its curricula includes: “Ancestral Mexican schooling ethos embodied social ideals and appreciations intended to develop the child as a complete person. The indigenous heart of our vision is a repossession of an identity denied from our children in standard schools.”

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16970

LOS ANGELES — Police were investigating a KABC-AM reporter's accusations that a man assaulted him and grabbed his tape recorder after he attempted to interview the principal of a charter school that a host at his radio station said was "openly segregationist."

Reporter Sandy Wells was chased and tackled by the man yesterday after a school employee told him to leave Academia Semillas Del Pueblo campus east of downtown, said station spokesman Steve Sheldon.

Wells was not injured, but "very shaken," Sheldon said, adding that the station believes that Wells was targeted because he was investigating the school's academic program.

"We are very concerned about the alleged incident that reportedly occurred at Academia Semillas del Pueblo charter school and police authorities are investigating," the Los Angeles Unified School District said in a statement.

The school district, which issued the charter license to Academia Semillas Del Pueblo, said it was reviewing the school's academic programs to determine whether to renew its charter operations.

The school came under scrutiny by KABC host Doug McIntyre after he received a tip from a listener that the school didn't fly the American flag on May Day, Sheldon said.

The Web site for the school described it as a kindergarten through eighth grade public school "dedicated to providing urban children of immigrant native families an excellent education founded upon their own language, cultural values and global realities." Students learn English, Spanish, Mandarin and Nahuatl, an indigenous language of Mexico.

"It's exclusionary, it's separatist, it's openly segregationist," McIntyre told KABC-TV.

A call to the school's principal, Marcos Aguilar, was not immediately returned yesterday.

Aguilar issued a statement contending that while most of the school's pupils are Hispanic, it does not discriminate against students on the basis of their ethnicity or national origin. He noted that the school's curriculum was approved by the district's and state's school boards.

"The perception has been made that our school exercises racist policies and that our curriculum ... is contrary to a quality education," Aguilar said. "Academia is in fact committed to providing a high-quality, public school education to all students, but most notably the underserved kids in our local community."

Originally Posted by Nadys

This is a big story but I wonder..Where is the ACLU and the mainstream media??

Ha! Dont count on the ACLU lending a hand on this one. And the mainstream media has already been sold to big business.
BUT GOOD WORK NADYS!