TUSD’s Governing Board eliminated its ethnic studies program Tuesday night in a 4 -1 vote following impassioned pleas from program supporters. Board member Adelita Grijalva was the dissenting vote.... Read more»
Will Seberger/TucsonSentinel.com
MAS supporters chanted 'Shame on you' as the vote to suspend TUSD's ethnic studies program was taken Tuesday night.
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12 comments on this story
If it means so much to these teachers and these students, what is it exactly that is preventing them from assembling on their own time, in someone’s home perhaps, to discuss these issues that they seem to find important?
TUSD is a publicly funded district. This means that they have to comply with certain standards and certain laws, and it means they have to consider what the taxpayers want…such as an absence of classes that indoctrinate children to hate another race.
It also means so much to some parents….like myself. What is the problem with offering a course of studies that teaches an alternative viewpoint of the history of this region? What is everyone so afraid of? That our prison population will go down? That educated American kids (especially the brown ones!) might actually USE the rights that they have? You would think that the ethnic studies program was mandatory for the way people are so afraid of it. Don’t like it? Don’t take it. But don’t tell me MY kid can’t take it. Huppenthal and Horne really won this round but we aren’t going anywhere. With the Board or without it, Chicano/Hispanic/Latino history and culture aren’t going anywhere, and this institutional racism will not stand.
Bret Linden typed:
That’s a pretty serious allegation. Please cite some evidence to support it.
scar wrote:
April’s TUSD board meeting.
I will say this though…
I frequent many internet boards that discuss local issues. I’ve followed this controversy. I’ve read many viewpoints and arguments from both sides of the issue…
In all of that, I’ve never heard anyone straightly and directly deny that this program violates the laws outlined. Every time I have asked someone who supports these classes to explain what goes on in these classes, and how it doesn’t violate the law, I have never, never, never received a response.
Therefore, I must conjecture that the absence of denial is pretty much an admission.
Let’s look at it another way…anything that Raul Grijalva’s daughter, Isabel Garcia, and Occupy Tucson agree on, anything, can’t possibly be a good thing.
Yup…par for the course, especially from that infected gene pool.
Liberalism 101 states that the basis of any liberal’s arguments contain at least one of the following five baseless insults toward the other party…
-angry
-hateful
-uncivil
-vitriolic
-or, the staple of most liberal arguments…“racist”
Speaking for myself, once I hear/read one of these five things in their argument, I stop listening/reading.
Well, bret, you are being hypocritical in the same sense when you are calling someone from an ‘infected genepool’ or ‘fleas’. And, supporters of axing the ethnic studies also use the same disparaging language. Just see Loretta’s article over here: http://www.arizonadailyindependent.com/2011/12/federal-judge-to-decide-whether.html
Scar, perhaps you could point out the problem…I’m not seeing it. The whole story seemed intelligent and lucid to me.
Since we’re discussing this issue, I wanna throw a question out there…
Why is it that I am seemingly the only person, on either side of the issue, who is outraged that TUSD is graduating students who have not taken American History courses? Forget MAS for a second…the thought of allowing students to substitute ANYTHING for American History is just lunacy. Where is the outrage over this?
Speaking for myself, I think HB2281 or whatever it’s called now is a great law. And I think it’s painfully obvious that MAS does not comply with the law. However, I would be satisfied if it were offered as an elective. Kids want to waste an hour of their day being brainwashed in a hate class then maybe it’s their hour to waste. All I want in return is that these idiotic brainwashed kids stay the hell away from a voting ballot once they reach adulthood.
The first few paragraphs are filled with bias, Speaking of ‘protecting teachers who teach hate and classes that segregate students’ and whether ‘bigotry is protected by the Constitution’, as if those fighting to keep these classes are hateful, racist, bigots. That is not journalism but just opinion, and disparaging opinion at that.
It was also my impression that these have always been elective courses. The American History that is taught our schools is a one-sided viewpoint too. So, if anything, this should at least galvanize some action to teach a broader viewpoint in our history classes.
@scar
Ummm….no. That’s what the crybaby tantrum at April’s meeting was about. The board was going to vote that evening on whether or not to convert MAS to an elective course. But, we all know what happened instead…
as to your quote in the story…I just reread it, and I even those phrases in to Firefox’s search feature and came up empty. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but you’re not making it easy on me…
Bret, if you would just read the first few paragraphs instead of using the search function, you would find the inferred references. I didn’t use double quotation marks for a reason. Do you need a grammar lesson too? Lazy people don’t find many things easy….
scar opined:
A flea party supporter making this comment…I’m overwhelmed by the irony.