http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 71915.html

April 5, 2006, 1:52AM

Coach disciplined for distributing flier at school
Instructor urged Latino students to attend rally on immigration
By JENNIFER RADLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Rudy Rios was stripped of his duties as junior varsity baseball coach at Chavez High School last week after using a district copying machine to make a flier encouraging Latino students to attend a rally protesting restrictions on illegal immigration.

Rios, who still retains his duties as an English-as-a-second-language teacher, was copying and distributing a flier that read: "We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us (sic)," according to district officials.

"Mr. Rios used taxpayer-funded school equipment to copy and distribute to children an offensive statement," said Houston Independent School District spokesman Terry Abbott. "The principal exercised his authority to remove Mr. Rios as junior varsity baseball coach, and it certainly was an appropriate decision."

Chavez Principal Dan Martinez made the decision, but referred questions on the issue to Abbott. Rios could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

According to district records, Rios has been with HISD since August 2002. He earned about $42,000 a year.

Last week, Reagan High School Principal Robert Pambello was disciplined for putting a Mexican flag below the U.S. and Texas flags that fly at his school.

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, said many educators are struggling to keep their opinions on the controversial changes to the immigration laws out of the classroom.

"It's a very tough one for a lot of the teachers because it's a highly emotional issue," she said. "A teacher's role is to be informative, but not persuasive. They need to talk to students. They need to make sure they know the issues, but like any other political issue, their role is not to express a specific opinion."

Teachers would be allowed to demonstrate on their own time, including during duty-free lunches, she said. "A teacher is a citizen. A teacher has every right to — on their own time — be as public as they want, no matter how popular or unpopular their views," she said.

jennifer.radcliffe@chron.com