Thread: TUSD board hears critics of Chicano group

http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/133570

TUSD board hears critics of Chicano group
One calls allowing students to meet at school 'treason'
By Jeff Commings
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.14.2006

The Tucson Unified School District Governing Board got an earful Tuesday evening from four critics of a student-run organization at six of its high schools.

During the call to the audience, the board was told that allowing the group Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán to hold meetings on school property was "treason."

Wes Bramhall, 84, president of Arizonans for Immigration Control, said the group's constitution promoted "the liberation, or takeover, of seven of our southwestern states," adding that "talking about this plan has entirely no place in any public school system, or anywhere else, for that matter."

The group, called MEChA, calls for Chicano students to do many things in its mission statement. Besides educating the public and creating awareness about Chicano issues, it calls for an "economic program to drive the exploiter out of our community" and a walkout on Sept. 16, the day of Mexican independence from Spain.

Bramhall, who said he's been researching this group and others like it for 20 years, said "We let this go until they started jumping around with their flags" during the March and April immigration protests.
No members of MEChA attended the board meeting, and no opposing comments were made.

Clyde Phillips, 85, also addressed the board, saying the group's proposed plan was deemed "treason" in studies of American history.

No board member addressed the issue.

District policy stipulates that clubs similar to MEChA can be formed at a high school with the principal's permission, "providing the club is sponsored, co-sponsored, or monitored by a faculty member." The policy does not indicate the board's involvement in creating or dissolving a student-run group.

Students in MEChA helped organize the walkouts in protest of proposed legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony. Then, on May 12, they stood silently in protest of a speech at Tucson High Magnet School by Margaret Garcia Dugan, a Latina Republican and the state's deputy education superintendent.

● Contact reporter Jeff Commings at 573-4191 or jcommings@azstarnet.com.

No board member addressed the issue.

They are either cowards, or in on it.

hmm...it'll be interesting to see how this turns out

Students in MEChA helped organize the walkouts in protest of proposed legislation that would make illegal immigration a felony. Then, on May 12, they stood silently in protest of a speech at Tucson High Magnet School by Margaret Garcia Dugan, a Latina Republican and the state's deputy education superintendent.

They are allowed to protest the other side of the issue but yet, when activist Dolores Huerta came and said "Republicans hate Latinos", senior Mon-yee Fung was not allowed to leave due to not agreeing with what was being said. This is wrong MEChA should not be allowed in the school system. Anybody now how to contact Arizonans for Immigration Control, I'd like to stand up with them!!!!

Here is the reason Margaret Garcia Dugan, a Latina Republican and the state's deputy education superintendent, was asked to give her speech.



www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/dailystar/124593.php
TUSD in Fox spotlight
Labor activist's speech gets attention of 'O'Reilly Factor'
By Daniel Scarpinato
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 04.14.2006
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A politically focused speech at a local high school in which the speaker said "Republicans hate Latinos" is gaining national attention as Tucson Unified School District officials struggle to defend the event.
A day after Superintendent Roger Pfeuffer issued a formal response to questions from a state lawmaker who has been critical of the speech, he and others appeared on cable news to discuss the controversy.
On the Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," Pfeuffer, Republican state Rep. Jonathan Paton and a Tucson High Magnet School student also debated lingering questions about how the district has dealt with student walkouts and protests over immigration reforms with Bill O'Reilly, the most-watched personality on cable news. Fox devoted two segments to the issue.
The controversial comments were made by labor activist Dolores Huerta, co-founder of United Farm Workers of America, during an April 3 speech at Tucson High, 400 N. Second Ave.
Huerta said she wanted to start a postcard campaign with the theme "Republicans hate Latinos." She also talked about abortion, the war in Iraq and other controversial issues. She did not return calls Thursday to discuss her comments.
Pfeuffer is scheduled to appear in front of a bipartisan legislative committee next Thursday to explain the speech as well as his decision to bus students back to school from the Downtown protests.
Pfeuffer responded in writing Wednesday night to questions from Paton about both issues. In his letter, he said Huerta was allowed to continue after the comment about Republicans because she's "a national icon and her words offer an historical perspective that is consistently left out of our history books."
Further complicating the issue is that students who chose to opt out of going to the speech were sent to the library, which was locked because the librarians had not seen a memo from the school principal.
The student who appeared on the show, Mon-yee Fung, is president and founder of the school's Teenage Republican Club and also will be testifying at next week's hearings in Phoenix. She told O'Reilly — who said he hadn't previously heard of Huerta — that she chose to attend the speech despite her disagreements.
"I heard that she was a cultural icon and because everyone was saying that Republicans don't understand the other side, as a Republican I wanted to show that I do want to understand the other side," said the 17-year-old senior.
After Huerta's "Republicans hate Latinos" comment, Fung tried to leave but was stopped by school personnel, which Pfeuffer said was unfortunate.
"My teacher told me to sit down and listen. There wasn't really an explanation," she said.
Fung thinks the comments made an impression on students, who she believes might view her differently even though she supports setting up a system for illegal immigrants to become legal.
District officials have argued that the speech was educational, not political. But Pfeuffer acknowledged Thursday that the speech had, in fact, become political in nature.
And Huerta's speech touched on more than just immigration. During the roughly 30 minute speech, she talked about some of the most hot-button issues in the country, such as abortion, U.S. Supreme Court appointments, gay marriage, the war in Iraq, taxes and labor unions.
Huerta said that Spanish radio hosts "told the people what was happening on these immigration laws. I wish the Anglo-speaking press would do the same with the American public and tell them what's happening in Iraq and what's happening with our tax dollars that are going to the wealthy."
The speech came amid thousands of student walkouts over national immigration reform. It was billed as a forum to highlight the issue but was scheduled before the protests, which landed most students at the Downtown Federal Building.
In the letter to Paton, which was released Thursday, Pfeuffer said roughly $2,600 was spent transporting students from the protests back to campus. Of that total, about $1,000 was spent on overtime. The district has spent considerable time explaining that students were not driven to the rallies — only back to campus to keep them safe, Pfeuffer said.
That strategy emerged "after we saw the scale of the walkouts, the temperature that day and requests from the Tucson Police Department to remove students from the Downtown area," Pfeuffer said in his letter to Paton. TUSD decided not to provide transportation on April 10, when some 11,000 students were absent from school.
Pfeuffer has invited Paton to speak at Tucson High, an offer he says he won't accept.
"They shouldn't be having political speech on campus," he said. "My whole point was that it's not an appropriate venue for high-school students. So they're going to spend another whole hour on another whole political speech? For what?"
Pfeuffer said he doesn't agree with Huerta's comment about Republicans. "You cannot paint a whole group with the same brush as she did," he said. But he does support having controversial speakers in schools.