Thread: Is harmful era of Raza Studies finally over in Tucson public schools?

Immigration Reform Examiner January 16, 2012
Dave Gibson

On January 10, U.S. Circuit Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima ruled against a group of Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) teachers who sued to re-instate so-called Raza Studies (or Mexican-American Studies), claiming their 1st Amendment rights had been violated.



Raza studies...further balkanizing the American SouthwestCredits: Getty Images

The teachers filed the suit after a state law (HB 2281) was passed banning any curriculum which promotes “resentment toward a race or class of people,” or “promotes the overthrow” of the government.

The measure effectively put an end to Raza Studies.

Video: Learn the shocking truth behind Raza Studies

A week before Judge Tashima’s decision, Arizona’s state superintendent of public schools, John Huppenthal, ordered that 10 percent of TUSD’s budget be withheld until the Raza Studies curriculum came in line with the law and the penalties would be retroactive to the start of this school year.

According to the Arizona Department of Education, that would amount to $14.4 million for the current fiscal year.
Huppenthal recently told The Los Angeles Times: “We would find it nearly impossible for them to cure the program. The problems are so widespread and so deep that it would be very difficult. These are decisions they would have to make.”

One of the textbooks which has been used in Raza Studies is entitled “Occupied America,” which was written by Rodolfo Acuña and includes a speech given by activist and university professor Jose Angel Gutierrez in which he says: “We have got to eliminate the gringo, and what I mean by that is if the worst comes to the worst, we have got to kill him,” (pg. 323).

The book also talks about the need for Mexico to re-take seven states in the Southwestern United States, often referred to as “Aztlan.”

The following rather shocking quotes are taken directly from Occupied America (pg. 167):
“Supporters would execute all white males over age 16,” (also known as the Plan of San Diego).
“The Southwest would become a Chicano nation.”

In May 2011, the woman who can easily be credited for exposing the hatred being taught in Tucson’s public schools, Laura Leighton, attended a TUSD school board meeting and read excerpts from several books being used to teach children as young as 9-years-old.

Leighton read:

-“Hard drugs and drug culture is an invention of the gringo because he has no culture.”

-“We have to destroy capitalism and we have to help 5/6 of the world to destroy capitalism in order to equal all peoples’ lives.”

“The Declaration of Independence states that we the people have the right to revolution…the right to overrule the government…”

“Any country based on capitalism is based on greed…”

A rather laughable moment came when board superintendent Dr, John Pedicone warned Leighton to watch her language as she read directly from the excerpts, as many of the books contain profanity. Dr. Pedicone was concerned because “we may have young people in this room and it’s inappropriate.”

The outraged crowd began screaming at the superintendent, pointing out to him that what she was reading is already being taught to children in the classrooms he oversees.

A large percentage of students enrolled in the Tucson public schools are the children of immigrants, both legal and illegal.
So, the question becomes…How can these children have any hope of assimilation while being taught (or subjected to) Raza Studies?

Obviously, teaching children such ethno-centric values and even over-taking a portion of this country, through violence if necessary, can only lead to those students’ further isolation and distrust of anyone who looks or sounds different from them.
Put simply…Raza Studies teaches hate and amounts to the abuse of those students.

While many are now celebrating the end of Raza Studies, their exuberance may be premature.

While Judge Tashima struck down the teachers’ suit, he has also ruled that TUSD students have legal standing to sue because, unlike their teachers, they have presented a “plausible showing of a First Amendment violation.”

And so…the saga may now continue.

Source: Is harmful era of Raza Studies finally over in Tucson public schools? - National Immigration Reform | Examiner.com

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