Poll: Require Dallas school principals to learn Spanish

I remember hearing about this several months ago and am sure it was posted on Alipac also, but I found a poll along with a new article.

http://www.nbc5i.com/education/4833032/detail.html

SURVEY
A controversial new proposal would require some principals in the Dallas Independent School District to learn Spanish within three years. The plan would target schools in the DISD that have at least a 50-percent Hispanic student population. Do you support the plan?
Yes
No
Not sure

Current Results

Choice Votes Percentage of 1770 Votes
Yes 167 9%
No 1567 89%
Not sure 36 2%

Controversial Plan Would Force Principals To Learn Spanish
DISD Board To Make Final Decision Next Week

POSTED: 10:32 am CDT August 10, 2005
UPDATED: 11:48 am CDT August 10, 2005


DALLAS -- A controversial new proposal would require school officials to learn Spanish in order to better communicate with students and their families.

Under the proposal, schools in the Dallas Independent School District that have at least a 50-percent Hispanic student population would require more than bilingual teachers. In fact, principals would be required to learn Spanish within three years.

Discuss: Oppose Or Support Plan?

Anna Paredes, whose 7-year-old son, Juan, attends Reinhardt Elementary, likes the idea. While Paredes is bilingual, her husband speaks only Spanish.

Paredes said the plan makes sense "only because some parents don't speak English, and the children have to translate for the parents."

However, Dallas resident Peggy Neill is opposed to the plan.

"I think [parents] should learn English so they … won't speak Spanish all the time at home, and the child has to go to school and learn English," she said. "They're fighting a losing battle. Right?"

Under the proposal, Reinhardt Elementary, with a Hispanic population of 67 percent, would be impacted. The school's principal doesn't speak Spanish.

Still, at least one teacher said a lot of effort is made to communicate with Spanish- speaking parents, from the front office to the counselor's office.

The school board will make a final decision on the issue next week.

The first time someone tells me I must learn a foreign language to keep a job, or anything else in MY country, will be the first time I will cease to be a civil, polite person. I never applied for any jobs that stated one must be bilingual. I couldn't have gotten through an interview without telling them what I think. And I speak Spanish. More or less. When I've been in Mexico I had no problem communicating with the residents. These Illegals, I can't understand a word they say. It's like Hispanic ebonics.

This is the United States... we speak english here. I grant you some butcher it but its still basically english.
My people came over from France a hundred or so years ago... I don't speak a word of french nor do I care to fly the french flag or hate americans like a lot of people in France do.
The first thing my people did when stepping off the boat was to start learning english. The second was learning the american way of live.
These new immigrates should be doing the same. How are the kids suppose to learn english if they don't hear it at home or durning the summer.
And now they gonna hear more of that mexican gibberish at school.

I agree with AuntB, someone threatens to fire me becuse I don't speak another laughish... I'd introduce them to the oldest american tradition.
A boot up the ass cause that's the american way :twisted:

Arthur C. said. "A boot up the ass cause that's the american way"

Yes! BTW, I've got some dead ancestors from North Carolina. Never been to that area, but I'd like to see it. Kick out some of the liberals, okay? LOL!

This failed to make it past the DISD school board. For now. It caused quite a furor when it first came up. However, knowing Dallas like I do, they will get around to it. :evil:

This whole thing is getting so stupid that it really seems like a movie. Hollyweird could not write something this crazy up on it's own.

:!: This mentality is the doggone problem with America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instead of paying God only knows how much to teach these principals Spanish.......offer English courses for the parents and kids at night at the schools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But you know what? A large number of them STILL wouldn't learn English because GWB has allowed so much illegal immigration that these people live in their own private little illegal world!!!!!!!!!

It's become all separated...no way to assimilate like this, Mr. President.
(It was VERY hard for me to say "Mr." in that sentence, but I did.)

I am going to look for the story in Miami of the school board worker told she must learn Spanish in 30 days, or bye bye job. :x Hate that story, but it has to be told again and again in order to sink in as to what level of insanity things have now reached here in America.

NO PRINCIPALS.......PUT YOUR FOOT DOWN. SHOW GEORGE BUSH THE MEANING OF THE WORD NO.....IN ENGLISH!!!!!

Here is the story which took place around 2001

Miami-Dade Employee Fired for Not Speaking Spanish
A 16-year employee of the Miami-Dade County court system was abruptly fired by her supervisor for not being able to speak fluent Spanish after a campaign of harassment and discrimination because of her non-Hispanic background, according to news reports.

Zita Wilensky, had compiled an exemplary work record while working in various departments of the county court system over 14 years. But Wilensky was transferred into the court's domestic violence unit after her previous job was eliminated for budget reasons. In the office where she was assigned, she was the only non-Spanish speaking employee.

Spanish fluency was an advantage in her office because many of the calls that come into the domestic violence unit, were in Spanish. But Wilensky's job was primarily working with computers and she was only occasionally needed to screen incoming calls.

According to Wilensky, soon after she began working in her new assignment she was subjected to a pattern of discrimination and harassment due to her non-Hispanic background and inability to speak Spanish. Fellow employees commonly excluded her from office conversations that were conducted only in Spanish, and openly referred to her as "the Gringa" or "the Americana." In one of the cruelest incidents that took place at the height of the Anthrax scare, her supervisor asked her to sniff a suspicious looking envelope containing white powder in front of her fellow workers. When she refused she was ridiculed and told it was "a joke."

The final act came when her supervisor told her that she had 60 days to learn Spanish or lose her job - even though Spanish fluency was not part of her official job description. Thirty days later her supervisor placed a call to Wilensky, concealing her identity, screaming in Spanish, and pretending to be a victim of domestic violence. When Wilensky transferred the call to one of her Spanish-speaking co-workers, she was fired.

In response to the news reports, ProEnglish executive director K.C. McAlpin said, "I have spoken to Ms. Wilensky several times and seen her tell her story on TV. I believe she is telling the truth." He added that, "Not only does it appear that she was fired because she couldn't speak Spanish in a state in which English is the official language, but she appears to have been the victim of a campaign of intentional harassment simply because she was not Hispanic. Until and unless Zita Wilensky is reinstated or given an equivalent county job, I am asking all ProEnglish members to join a national boycott of the Miami-Dade County area to protest this injustice." McAlpin noted that Alex Penelas, the mayor of Miami-Dade had refused requests for an independent commission to thoroughly investigate Wilensky's firing.

In the meantime, Zita Wilensky continues to pay a heavy price for the controversy over her dismissal. As the mother of two including a special-needs foster child she is adopting, she is now unemployed and urgently searching for work. But she has good reason to believe that negative references from her former employer continue to intimidate prospective employers, despite an untainted 16-year work record in the county court system.

http://www.proenglish.org/news/fall2002.html

Notice where it says the Mayor refused requests for an independent council to investigate.

All I can tell them, "Grow a back bone, it is but one simple word. Say NO!!"

I did just find a bill, that is going on in Ohio, now. That just was introduced to make English, the official language of Ohio.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

Here is the story which took place around 2001

Miami-Dade Employee Fired for Not Speaking Spanish
A 16-year employee of the Miami-Dade County court system was abruptly fired by her supervisor for not being able to speak fluent Spanish after a campaign of harassment and discrimination because of her non-Hispanic background, according to news reports.

Zita Wilensky, had compiled an exemplary work record while working in various departments of the county court system over 14 years. But Wilensky was transferred into the court's domestic violence unit after her previous job was eliminated for budget reasons. In the office where she was assigned, she was the only non-Spanish speaking employee.

Spanish fluency was an advantage in her office because many of the calls that come into the domestic violence unit, were in Spanish. But Wilensky's job was primarily working with computers and she was only occasionally needed to screen incoming calls.

According to Wilensky, soon after she began working in her new assignment she was subjected to a pattern of discrimination and harassment due to her non-Hispanic background and inability to speak Spanish. Fellow employees commonly excluded her from office conversations that were conducted only in Spanish, and openly referred to her as "the Gringa" or "the Americana." In one of the cruelest incidents that took place at the height of the Anthrax scare, her supervisor asked her to sniff a suspicious looking envelope containing white powder in front of her fellow workers. When she refused she was ridiculed and told it was "a joke."

The final act came when her supervisor told her that she had 60 days to learn Spanish or lose her job - even though Spanish fluency was not part of her official job description. Thirty days later her supervisor placed a call to Wilensky, concealing her identity, screaming in Spanish, and pretending to be a victim of domestic violence. When Wilensky transferred the call to one of her Spanish-speaking co-workers, she was fired.

In response to the news reports, ProEnglish executive director K.C. McAlpin said, "I have spoken to Ms. Wilensky several times and seen her tell her story on TV. I believe she is telling the truth." He added that, "Not only does it appear that she was fired because she couldn't speak Spanish in a state in which English is the official language, but she appears to have been the victim of a campaign of intentional harassment simply because she was not Hispanic. Until and unless Zita Wilensky is reinstated or given an equivalent county job, I am asking all ProEnglish members to join a national boycott of the Miami-Dade County area to protest this injustice." McAlpin noted that Alex Penelas, the mayor of Miami-Dade had refused requests for an independent commission to thoroughly investigate Wilensky's firing.

In the meantime, Zita Wilensky continues to pay a heavy price for the controversy over her dismissal. As the mother of two including a special-needs foster child she is adopting, she is now unemployed and urgently searching for work. But she has good reason to believe that negative references from her former employer continue to intimidate prospective employers, despite an untainted 16-year work record in the county court system.

http://www.proenglish.org/news/fall2002.html

Notice where it says the Mayor refused requests for an independent council to investigate.

---

And where is the ACLU on this? No abla :twisted: