Listening to the audio would add to the frustration I feel daily in my position as an ESL instructor to adults in L.A. County. I'm not a bigot; my children's paternal grandmother is hispanic. I really care about my students, even the majority who are illegal. But I can't afford to support them with Social Security, welfare, and education benefits that I myself won't qualify for when I retire in a few years, having a state teacher's pension. It's the comments I get from some of the young guys in my evening class that raises my stroke risk. Occasionally someone will say during a unit on naturalization that they love Mexico and will never become U.S. citizens, and those who were too afraid to voice that opinion will nod. Mind you, those folks aren't the majority, but it validates a concern I've had since starting this job three years ago: a sizable percentage of our adult students from Latin America don't respect our laws and expect to receive benefits because they're entitled. It's an outrage!

One teacher told me that her students opened up and told her that in Mexico it's expected that kids will head north at age 17. One of my hispanic students, a senior citizen from El Salvador, gave one of my Chinese students advice on how to get free health care at the County health clinic next door. This is a young woman who wears a $5,300 diamond on her finger and drives a Mercedes. When I caught what I feared was SARS two years ago (a very sick student returned from China very ill, went home, and three of us came down with a really bad flu- the principal had pneumonia, I had bronchitis that almost got me, and the counselor ended up in the ER unable to breathe). The County clinic refused me treatment because I'm employed- never mind that I didn't have sick pay coming in and I caught the disease from my students. The students get free health care when they lie and say they have no assets. Legal citizens have to take out loans to pay co-payments and bill when we get sick with illnesses brought here by immigrants, many illegal.

The topping on this ugly cake was when an administrator of school was guiding my students through a tour of the Business Dept. of our vocational education area two weeks ago. He conducted the whole tour in Spanish. After watching my Asian students look confused for a few minutes, I comented that not all our students speak Spanish. He looked at me like I was from Mars, spoke in English for a few minutes, then reverted to Spanish. How incredibly rude! He was treating the illegal alien students with more respect than the Asian students who bothered to abide by immigration laws and get proper documents. Arghhh.....

Good luck in your endeavors.

Sincerely,
Meredith Alleruzzo