Arizona Republicans propose legislation to "prohibit public school teachers from using partisan books or any partisan doctrine."

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]
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On February 6, 2012, I wrote about a new bill being drafted in Arizona that said, in part:

A teacher who uses partisan books and/or partisan materials or teaches any partisan doctrine or conducts any partisan exercises in school is guilty of unprofessional conduct and his certificate shall be revoked.

Earlier this week, Arizona's Committee on Government Reform approved the bill with a vote of 5-2. It will have to make it through the House and Senate, too, and then be signed into law by Jan Brewer.  I speculated that the bill was aimed at MAS teacher Curtis Acosta because his syllabus for a Social Justice class he taught is on the website for the group that wrote the bill: Tucsonans United For Sound Districts.

News reports out of Arizona  provide additional context.

Gabriela Saucedo Mercer is a Republican who is running against Raul Grijalva for his seat in the US House of Representatives. She testified that even though the MAS classes have been shut down, teachers are ignoring the law by being political in encouraging students to walk-out of school.

The language of the bill is ambiguous. Who will determine if something is partisan? What does that mean for social studies and history classes that study politics, elections, etc.? On its face, it seems ridiculous, but so did the Ethnic Studies law that got passed. We'll see. Will saner minds prevail this time?

Yale holding Teach-in to support Mexican American students in Tucson

This coming Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012, there is a Teach-In at Yale in support of the Mexican American students in TUSD.

William L. Harkness Hall

Organized by Theodore Van Alst, Dean of Native Students at Yale, the Teach-In is a panel composed of the following individuals:

• Alicia Schmidt Camacho, Associate Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, Race & Migration
• Stephen Pitti, Professor of History & American Studies, Director of Ethnicity, Race & Migration
• Birgit Brander Rasmussen, Assistant Professor, American Studies
• Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children's Literature

The panel begins at 7:00 PM at William L. Harkness Hall, room 119.

Though New Haven is a long way from Tucson, I think Yale would be smart to send someone to TUSD to encourage students from the now-banned MAS program to apply to Yale.

Critical thinking about Thanksgiving? Not allowed in Tucson Unified School District

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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On their website, Tucsonans United for Sound Districts (TU4SD) posted a series of items taught in the now-banned Mexican American Studies program in Tucson's public school district.

The first is Robert Jensen's "No Thanks to Thanksgiving", published at AlterNet on November 23, 2005.  Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes:

In the United States, we hear constantly about the deep wisdom of the founding fathers, the adventurous spirit of the early explorers, the gritty determination of those who "settled" the country -- and about how crucial it is for children to learn these things.

But when one brings into historical discussions any facts and interpretations that contest the celebratory story and make people uncomfortable...

Reading his words reminds me of the things that John Huppenthal, Arizona's Superintendent of Public Instruction said on NPR on January 18th, 2012. He says he was "challenged" to visit a classroom. Maybe he was invited. Here's what he said on NPR:

And one of the students challenged me. Come on down to our class and sit in our class, so I sat down in the class and up on the wall there's a poster of Che Guevara, and I said - well documented historical fact – Che Guevara helped run the communist death camps. They put 14,000 people to death down there, many of whom their only violation was free speech violation. So you're sort of glorifying him by having that romantic picture of him up there.


Simultaneously one of the creators of Mexican-American studies, right while I'm in there, characterizes Benjamin Franklin as a racist. So I'm, whoa, time out. Benjamin Franklin was the president of the Abolitionist Society in Pennsylvania. Directly he argued and was successful at making Pennsylvania the very first state to ban the slave trade.

Huppenthal was definitely uncomfortable with a full picture of Benjamin Franklin, and I have no doubt he'd object strenuously to Jensen's essay, too.

The second item on TU4SD's site is from Rethinking Columbus, one of the books the district "boxed" up and removed from classrooms because, they assert, the courses are no longer being taught, and the books are no longer needed.  The item is "Plagues & Pilgrims: The Truth about the First Thanksgiving" by James W. Loewen.

Loewen's article begins with:

Textbooks spin happy yarns about the Pilgrims and the "First Thanksgiving." Here's is the version in one high-school history, The American Tradition: 

He quotes from that history text and then does analysis of Thanksgiving and how it is presented in history texts.

These two items are at the top of the list at the TU4SD site. Seems to me members of TU4SD put them at the top because they find those two particular lessons especially inappropriate. Critical thinking about Thanksgiving...  No way! Not in Tucson.

District officials say it isn't the books themselves that are the problem. If that was the case, they could have left those books in the classrooms. District officials say it was the way the Mexican American Studies teachers were teaching the material in the books that is the problem.  Other teachers, apparently, weren't committing the violations the MAS teachers were.

I think those who shut down the program are ignorant of what is taught in schools. I wonder if any teachers in the district use Michael Dorris's Guests or Morning Girl. Both are the perspective of Native children who observe newcomers to their lands. I wonder if any teachers use Louise Erdrich's Birchbark House? It, too, offers a Native perspective on those newcomers.

Political leaders in the state of Arizona, speaking from their officially elected positions, have said that the reason they targeted the MAS program and not the other ethnic studies programs is that nobody complained about the other ones.

Complaints led to the dismantling of the MAS program. What else is at risk? Who else is at risk? If I was an elementary school teacher there, I'd be very worried about my job and my curriculum.

Debbie Reese reading from Delgado and Stefancic's CRITICAL RACE THEORY

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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I read from Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic's Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, on page nine.

Director/teacher of "suspended" Mexican American Studies program in NYC March 2-3, 2012

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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If you are in or near New York City on Friday, March 2nd or Saturday, March 3rd, head over to Teacher's College at Columbia University and learn about the Mexican American Studies program that was found guilty of violating Arizona Law Statute 15-112 that prohibits courses or classes that:

1. Promote the overthrow of the United States Government
2. Promote resentment toward a race or class of people
3. Are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group 
4. Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of treatment of pupils as individuals

 

Find out what happened directly from Sean Arce, who served as a teacher and then director of the MAS program.

 

 

 

 

And, from Maria Federico Brummer, who taught in the now-shuttered program.

 

 

 

In preparation for your visit, read Brummer's article 'My Other Me: Why Ethnic Studies are Good for All' at the website of the National Education Association. 

  

What did Curtis Acosta teach in his Mexican American Literature course?

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the National Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 DNC Convention is among the readings Curtis Acosta taught in his Social Justice, Resistance, and Literature course. 

Ever since January 15th when I read Who's afraid of "The Tempest" in Salon, I've been wondering what the teachers in the Mexican American Studies courses were teaching that led people to write laws to penalize school districts that offered courses that sought to "promote the overthrow of the U.S. government" or "promote resentment towards a race or class of people" or were "designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group" or "advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals."

Since then, I've learned a lot about the Mexican American Studies (MAS) Department and resistance to it.  There's a lot more to know. I continue to study the historical context that the program and resistance to it are nested within.

It seems the primary targets of the law were ideas taught in MAS history and social justice classes. I say that based on Governing Board President Stegeman's 2011 proposal to make those courses electives rather than allow them to count as fulfilling core course graduation requirements. Students and community that support the MAS program successfully stopped that proposal from being voted on by occupying the board's meeting room. Students chained themselves to board members chairs. Depending on who you ask, it was a violent and threatening event, or, it was a peaceful demonstration.

TUSD's response was to start having heavy police presence at their meetings. This included the use of helicopters, cordoning off streets, and admitting people to meetings only after they were wanded by security. Most of us know about the police brutality at Occupy Wall Street events, but I don't think the police brutality in Tucson is getting that attention. If you've seen it in the national press, please send me links. Here's a video of that brutality (the video is from a story about police brutality at the Three Sonorans page at Tucson Citizen):

What was being taught that moved people to write the law in the first place? What was being taught that motivated supporters of the program to fight so hard to keep the program intact?

Below is Curtis Acosta's syllabus. I didn't get it from him or the MAS program. I found it on the website for Tucsonans United for Sound Districts (TU4SD). Their January 2012 newsletter, written by co-founder Loretta Hunnicutt, takes credit for the shut down of a program that allowed "political predators" in the classroom to be funded by taxpayer dollars. They've got links to the syllabus for eight different courses, but they've reproduced his on their site. Obviously, they view it as evidence of the work of a "political predator."

At present, they are working on new legislation modeled on the Ethnic Studies law that would say "A teacher who uses partisan books and/or partisan materials or teaches any partisan doctrine or conducts any partisan exercises in school is guilty of unprofessional conduct and his certificate shall be revoked."

This new proposal is meant to control what is taught in any classroom by any teacher, but their work to rid TUSD of the MAS program and their use of Acosta's syllabus as an example of inappropriate course content is very telling.

Jane Yolen, author of Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast, has wondered why her book is on the list of books that may no longer be taught by teachers who once taught in the MAS program. When I found Acosta's syllabus, I wrote to Jane to let her know it was her "Lost Girls" story that was being taught. That story is Yolen's take on Peter Pan. In Fairy Tales Reimagined: Essays on New Retellings, Susan Redington Bobby writes that it "subverts a story meant to reinforce traditional gender roles and uses it to reinforce values of feminism" (p. 58).

Race. And feminism, too. What stands out to you? I don't like sounding like a fear mongerer, but I definitely thing we have a lot to be fearful of in the politics of the present time, and I hope you are, too. Could a law like the one in Arizona be passed in your state? Given the money driving politics in the United States right now, I think that the right question is not "could a law" but "When will a law like the one in Arizona be passed in your state?"


Social Justice, Resistance, and Latino Literature

First Quarter - Contemporary Fiction

Non-Fiction - Personal Reflections

• My Dungeon Shook by James Baldwin
• La Conciencia de la Mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness by Gloria Anzaldua
  

Short Stories

• Selections from Ten Little Indians by Sherman Alexie
• Eleven by Sandra Cisneros
• Vatolandia by Ana Castillo
• Love in L.A. by Dagoberto Gilb
• Lindo y Querido by Manuel Munoz
• Brisa by Dagoberto Gilb
• Aurora by Juno Diaz
• Lost Girls by Jane Yolen
• Selection from Tuff by Paul Beatty

Second Quarter - Critical Race Theatre

Counter Story Telling and Cultura Through Teatro 

• And Where Was Pancho Villa When You Really Needed Him? by Silviana Wood 
• Culture Clash in America and Culture Clash: Life, Death and Revolutionary Comedy by Culture Clash

Shakespeare, Colonization, and Critical Race Theory

• The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Third Quarter

Immigration - La Lucha Sigue

• The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea

Resistance Through Rhetoric

Nonfiction

• The Puerto Rican Dummy and the Merciful Son by Martin Espada
• Jesse Jackson's speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention
• Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention
• Speech at the Afro-Asian Conference by Ernesto "Che" Guevara
• "Women, Power, and Revolution" by Kathleen Cleaver
• "Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation" by Angela Davis
• Message to Aztlan by Corky Gonzales
• Message to the Grass Roots by Malcom X
• "Beyond Vietnam" and Where We Go From Here by Martin Luther King Jr.
• "Does 'Anti-War' Have to be 'Anti-Racist', too? by Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez

Fourth Quarter

Resistance/Revolution in Spoken Word, Slam Poetry, and Hip Hop
Poetry

• Selections from William Carlos Williams, Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Ana Castillo, Tracy Morris, Paul Beatty

Hip Hop

Selections from Olmeca, Sihuatl-De, Dead Prez, Common, Kanye West, KRS-1, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Rage Against the Machine, etc.

Live Stream Tomorrow: Teach-In on Tucson with MAS Teachers

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the National Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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Teach, Think, Do: A Teach-In on Tucson will be live streamed here on February 4, 2012, starting at 11:00 AM, Eastern Time.

The Virtual Panel from starts at 11:30 or shortly after and includes two TUSD teachers, Norma Isela and Jose Gonzales and TUSD student, Nico Dominguez. Jeff Biggers and I will join them on the panel. For background and updates, visit the Teach-In on Tucson blog.

TUSD Board Member, Michael Hicks: "if you do not trust your employee, you need to remove the employee."

 [Note: For a chronological and comprehensive list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District, go here. To go right to information about the National Mexican American Studies Teach-in, go here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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On January 10, 2012, the Tucson Unified School District voted 4-1 to shut down the Mexican American Studies (MAS) Department. They passed a resolution (the complete text of the resolution can be downloaded from the TUSD website) that says:

All MAS courses and teaching activities, regardless of the budget line from which they are funded, shall be suspended immediately. 

On January 18, 2012 MAS teachers were given a sheet of "Guiding Principles for MAS Teachers" that says (see the principles here):

• Assignments cannot direct students to apply MAS perspectives.
• The teachers cannot use the MAS curriculum designed individually or by MAS staff in TUSD.
• The focus of student learning must not exclusively trail back to MAS curriculum and issues. 
• Teachers should balance the use of literature focusing on multiple perspectives and varied literature.
• Race can be taught and discussed. However, context is important and the focus should be on using literature content as the teaching focus relative to race or oppression.
• Visitations in class by an administrator will be frequent to insure compliance. (At least one visit per unit of lessons.)
• Teachers will write and submit a syllabus and/or a curriculum map that demonstrates adherence to common, standards based approach to the curriculum. The due date is January 26.
• Student work will be collected by the evaluator when he/she comes into the classroom.
• Teachers can choose to submit student work that would serve as evidence that curriculum is adhered to.

Those guidelines are chilling. Teachers are doing what they can to figure out how they are to go forward. There is an audio recording of Curtis Acosta, the literature teacher, asking his administrators for clarification about how he should teach Shakespeare's The Tempest. As one of the bullet points notes, teachers will be monitored. That is happening. 

In one of his letters, Acosta wrote:

...there have been credible claims that two TUSD Governing Board members have told our district superintendent that any violations by teachers should be disciplined harshly and immediately. Thus, my colleagues and I feel that our jobs are very much on the line...

Yesterday (Feb. 2, 2012), I listened to an internet broadcast of a Tucson radio program in which TUSD Governing Board Member, Michael Hicks was the guest (it is a four-hour program; Hicks was on during the latter part of the broadcast. Update at 7:15 AM--go here to listen just to the Hicks segment.). Again and again as I listened, I shook my head at the things Hicks said, but for now I am focusing on the jobs of the teachers. 

Hicks said that he did not agree with the decision to keep the teachers and students together following the shut down of the program because the teachers are not like "a light switch" that can be turned on or off. His "common sense" tells him that the banned content is still being taught, and that teachers carry the banned materials in with them each morning when they come to school. 

The only way to make sure they don't teach the banned curriculum, Hicks said, is to have monitors sitting in the classrooms, but that he doesn't agree with that. He said "I believe if you do not trust your employees, you need to remove the employee."

Curtis Acosta is right. Their jobs are on the line. 

So far, TUSD has shut down the program and it has banned the books and curriculum. Will TUSD start firing the MAS teachers? 

I've seen videos of teachers in the classrooms, and videos of students talking about the program and what they do. They are inspiring.  Please read Jeff Bigger's profile of former director of the MAS Department, Sean Arce and do what you can to let others know what is going on in Tucson. Turn your outrage into action.

Go to the NO HISTORY IS ILLEGAL website

 [Note: For a chronological and comprehensive list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District, go here. To go right to information about the National Mexican American Studies Teach-in, go here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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Isn't that a terrific image? It was created by Julio Salgado, who was inspired by this photograph, taken by DA Morales:

The images beautifully and powerfully capture what is at the heart of the nationwide support for the Mexican American Studies program that was shut-down in Tucson Unified School District. Students want to be able to read stories that reflect who they are, and stories that tell a richer story about the peoples of the United States. 

Yesterday, Teacher Activist Groups launched No History is Illegal: A Campaign to Save Our Stories  in support of the now-banned Mexican American Studies (MAS) Department. The young woman above was reading aloud from Sherman Alexie's Ten Little Indians, one of the books taught in the program. She was at a protest organized by students who have been mobilizing to push back on efforts to take stories away from them.

An early riser, I had no trouble opening the No History is Illegal site before sunrise, but later in the day when I went back to it, it was slowing down, and that continued for several hours.

What that meant, of course, is that a lot of people were going to the site. Into the afternoon and evening hours, the site loaded fine. Perhaps TAG moved to a server that was more capable of handling large volumes of traffic. If you couldn't access the site yesterday, try again.


Like a lot of people, I wanted to see the lesson plans teachers in the MAS program had been using. I clicked on "Download the curriculum" and am making my way through the 22-page booklet.

It is--I am finding--a very rich document.

So rich, in fact, that I have yet to finish reading it because I'm going through it methodically, clicking on links on every page.

There are links to videos, like "Ethnic Studies in Arizona" on the PBS site.  I encourage you to set aside ten minutes today to watch the video and then head over to the No History is Illegal website. Download the curriculum and start learning about the program. There's a lot to learn, and a lot to choose from if you only have an hour to give to supporting the program.

In the coming days, I'll post my thoughts as I make my way through the curriculum.

At the end of his article yesterday ("Teaching Tucson: More National Groups Demand Release of Detained Books, as Teachers Adopt Banned Mexican American Studies") Jeff Bigger's closed with an excerpt from the No History is Illegal site:

"As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us," the "No History is Illegal" website notes, "'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' What is happening in Arizona is not only a threat to Mexican American Studies, it is a threat to our right to teach the experiences of all people of color, LGBT people, poor and working people, the undocumented, people with disabilities and all those who are least powerful in this country. Our history is not illegal."

My support for the Mexican American Studies program is tied to the work I do with American Indians in Children's Literature, and in my lectures, workshops, and teaching. Far too many people graduate from high school thinking that we vanished due to warfare and disease. Even highly educated people who graduate from college think that we were primitive and savage people who killed each other off!

As a nation, we ought to be embarrassed at our collective ignorance. And as a nation, we ought to fight for programs like the one in was shut down in Arizona.   

Visit No History is Illegal and start learning about the experiences of Mexican Americans in the United States.

And watch a live stream of the Teach-In for Tucson event taking place on Saturday, February 4. MAS teachers will be on a panel. A link for the livestream will be available on the Teach In for Tucson site.

American Indian Library Association Statement on Ethnic Studies Programs in Arizona

 [Note: For a chronological and comprehensive list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District, go here. To go right to information about the National Mexican American Studies Teach-in, go here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

 

American Indian Library Association Statement on Ethnic Studies Programs in Arizona

The American Indian Library Association (AILA) wishes to publicly express its strong disapproval of the elimination of the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Mexican American Studies classes and removal of books associated with the program due to the State of Arizona Revised Statutes Sections 15-111 and 15-112. We write this statement in support of all students, educators, and families who have been negatively affected by this action.

All students have the right to develop critical thinking skills through a challenging curriculum. All students, regardless of their background, have the right to learn about the history of their own people, as well as the history of the land and peoples where they are currently living. In Tucson, this should include the history and literature of Mexican American people as well as the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui peoples. The targeting of one ethnic group is an attack on all ethnic groups, and the elimination of a curriculum and books that encourage students to consider the perspectives of those who are often silenced should be a concern to all humanity.

The teaching of Mexican American studies cannot be separated from the teaching of the history of the Indigenous peoples who inhabited this land long before the arrival of Europeans. Indigenous communities have been artificially bisected by the US-Mexico border. People from these communities may speak Spanish, English, as well as their Indigenous languages. Their histories, their stories, and discussion of their contemporary issues have a place in our classrooms and libraries. The curriculum that has been banned in Tucson includes works written by highly acclaimed authors and Tucson residents Ofelia Zepeda (Tohono O'odham) and Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), in addition to a number of other Native American authors. The censorship of Native voices due to the prohibition of the Mexican American Studies curriculum is part of what prompts the American Indian Library Association to take a stand on this issue.

The systematic banning of ethnic studies and the discouragement of students learning about their own histories is reminiscent of the US federal government’s educational philosophy towards American Indians. As Native Americans, we have witnessed the destructive policies of the federal government in which Indian children were denied knowledge of their own cultures, histories, and languages through the abhorrent practices of the boarding schools and, later, through western educational systems. Because of this history, many Native Americans continue to struggle to maintain the knowledge of our elders and ancestors.

We have rights under the United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and we assert that Arizona state law is in violation of these rights.  Under Article 8, the UN Declaration says, “States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for:

(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities; . . .

(d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration;

(e) Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination directed against them.”

The banning of the Mexican American ethnic studies curriculum is in effect denying the students the opportunity to learn about their cultural values and identities as Indigenous peoples.

The American Indian Library Association supports the January 2012 American Library Association Resolution that*

1.     Condemns the suppression of open inquiry and free expression caused by closure of ethnic and cultural studies programs on the basis of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

2.     Condemns the restriction of access to educational materials associated with ethnic and cultural studies programs.

3.     Urges the Arizona legislature to pass HB 2654, “An Act Repealing Sections 15-111 and 15-112, Arizona Revised Statutes; Relating to School Curriculum.”

The American Indian Library Association worked alongside a number of ALA committees, offices, and affiliates to draft the above mentioned resolution, including the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, ALA Committee on Diversity, ALA Committee on Legislation, American Association of School Librarians, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, Black Caucus of the American Library Association, Chinese American Library Association, Intellectual Freedom Round Table, REFORMA: The National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, Social Responsibilities Round Table, and the Young Adult Library Services Association. We urge other national associations to also take a stand on this issue, particularly other national and international groups with a focus on Indigenous, tribal, Native American, and American Indian communities.

While the issue in Tucson, Arizona may seem to be limited to the Mexican-American population, we recognize that Tucson, and the surrounding area, is home to several Indigenous groups, including the Tohono O'odham and Pascua Yaqui, and many students in this school district identify as Native American. According to TUSD enrollment statistics, 4% of students in the district are Native American, with most students identified as Tohono O'odham, Yaqui, and Navajo.  Additionally, according to the independent audit of the disbanded Mexican American Studies program, conducted by Cambium Learning, Inc., 2% of the students who were enrolled in the program are Native American.

As a membership action group, AILA's focus is on the library-related needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including the improvement of library, cultural, and information services in schools and public and research libraries. As librarians and educators, and members of the American Indian Library Association, we write this statement in support of culturally based curriculum that includes libraries as institutions that can freely disseminate information about cultures, languages, and values to the community.

American Indian Library Association, January 31, 2012

Contact:  Sandy Littletree, 2011-2012 AILA President, Sandy505@email.arizona.edu

References:

Cambium Learning, Inc. “Curriculum Audit of the Mexican American Studies Department Tucson Unified School District,” 2 May 2011.  http://www.scribd.com/doc/58025928/TUSD-ethnic-studies-audit

 “Resolution Opposing Restriction of Access to Materials and Open Inquiry in Ethnic and Cultural Studies Programs in Arizona,” Approved by ALA Council III, 24 January 2012. http://www.oif.ala.org/oif/?p=3157

Tucson Unified School District. “Native American Studies,” 5 Dec 2011. http://www.tusd1.org/contents/depart/native/aboutus.asp

UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “United Nations Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” 13 September 2007. http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/declaration.html

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*This is a corrected copy of the AILA statement.

TUSD School Superintendent Pedicone scolds University Professors

 [Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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In today's news from Tucson, KNST is reporting that John J. Pedicone, Superintendent of Tucson Unified School District, sent a letter on January 27, 2012 to Dr. Tony Estrada, the Head of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona.

Below are screen shots of the two page letter. Read them below, or download the letter from the KNST site.

To protest the shut-down/"suspension" of the Mexican American Studies classes, students organized a protest that consisted of walking out of school to a day-long ethnic studies teach in at the El Casino Ballroom. Once there, there were a variety of activities taking place. At one table, there was a poetry slam. During the day, professors from the University of Arizona delivered lectures.

Pedicone's letter, in essence, tells Dr. Estrada to tell his faculty and staff to mind their own business. These professors, Pedicone says, got the students in trouble! And now, the district has no choice but to follow their disciplinary policies.

Students, Pedicone writes "have been assigned consequences followed by restorative practices to create a learning experience for them." What are "restorative practices"? Sounds a lot like janitorial work.

In fact, students who walked out a few weeks ago were assigned to do janitorial work. Someone must have figured out that was a bad move, and students went to detention instead. That, however, was a couple of weeks ago.

The Fox News network in Tucson reported this evening that "Students who participated in walkouts from school to protest suspension of Mexican-American studies will be disciplined" and that "Students who have participated in walkouts or other activities that violate TUSD policies can face detention, suspension, or if the activity is repeated, more severe penalties." Is it time for more "restorative practices"?!

I'm sure that some people think that TUSD is running things in an appropriate way, but from my perspective, they're just digging a bigger hole. After shutting the program down, they're now trying to shut out university professors.

It is almost laughable, thinking of the superintendent, wagging his finger at the university, scolding its professors for getting students in trouble, and then turning to wag that finger at students as he directs them to do "restorative" practices.

But it isn't a laughing matter. The well-being and future of the students is at stake. Going back over a decade, teachers in the Mexican American Studies Department at TUSD created a program that should be expanded, not shut down. It has a proven track record of student success.

What will tomorrow's news hold?!

All of this is very bad for the State of Arizona. Those behind the racist laws may think all is fine and dandy, but today's statement from over 20 national and international educational organizations should tell the political machinery in Arizona to back down. They are embarrassing the state on a national and international level.

fhfh

Arizona School Censorship Hit by Salvo of Protest from Free Speech Orgs and Educators

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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This is the press release sent out on Monday, January 30, 2012, announcing the Statement in Opposition to Book Censorship in the Tucson Unified School District, dated January 30, 2012.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Joan Bertin Executive Director National Coalition Against Censorship bertin@ncac.org 212-807-6222 x 101 Michael O’Neil Communications Coordinator National Coalition Against Censorship michael@ncac.org 212-807-6222 x 107

Chris Finan President American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression Chris@abffe.org 212-587-4025 x 301 Amy Long Communications Coordinator American Booksellers Foundation For Free Expression amyl@abffe.org 212-587-4025 x 302

Arizona School Censorship Hit By Salvo of Protest

From Free Speech Orgs and Educators

TUSCON, AZ, January 30, 2012

Dozens of national organizations have joined together to protest the banning of books used for the Mexican American Studies program in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). “This is censorship at its most brazen,” said Joan Bertin, Executive Director at the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC). “Officials at the state and local level are responsible for this unacceptable restriction on the educational opportunities of students and their ability to have discussion in school about historical and contemporary events touching on race and ethnicity.

“We call on them to restore the books and the topics for discussion in the district’s classrooms.”

The TUSD board ordered the books removed after State Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal threatened to withhold state funding pursuant to a recently-enacted Arizona law. That law is being challenged in court.

“We do not think the students of Tucson should have to wait for a federal court order to get the education they deserve,” said Chris Finan, President of American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE). “Regardless of the outcome of legal proceedings, this is harming students, whose education should be the primary concern of elected officials.  Instead they are putting politics and ideology ahead of the well-being of young people.”

NCAC and ABFFE have jointly created the Kids’ Right to Read Project (KRRP), which offers support, education, and advocacy to promote the right of young people to read widely and to receive a high quality education that is challenging and relevant.  KRRP provides direct assistance to students, teachers, librarians and others opposing book-banning in schools and communities nationwide, while engaging local activists to promote the freedom to read.

In the shocking case of Tuscon, many national organizations dedicated to education and constitutional rights have organized to speak in one voice, calling on the appropriate authorities to correct what they see as an egregious abuse of power.

The joint statement to Arizona officials, with signatories including representatives from publishers, teachers, civil libertarians, and booksellers from the region, may be viewed at ncac.org and abffe.org.

STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO BOOK CENSORSHIP IN THE TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

[Note: A chronological list of links to AICL's coverage of the shut-down of the Mexican American Studies Department at Tucson Unified School District is here. Information about the national Mexican American Studies Teach-in is here. The best source for daily updates out of Tucson is blogger David Abie Morales at Three Sonorans.]

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At 8:00 AM, Mountain Standard Time, teachers who taught in the Mexican American Studies Department distributed the statement below at the White House Hispanic Community Action Summit in Tucson, Arizona (updated at 10:33 AM, CST held a press conference where they read aloud the statement below). It is signed by national educational associations such as the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and the International Reading Association (IRA):

STATEMENT IN OPPOSITION TO BOOK CENSORSHIP

IN THE TUCSON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

January 30, 2012

The undersigned organizations are committed to protecting free speech and intellectual freedom. We write to express our deep concern about the removal of books used in the Mexican-American Studies Program in the Tucson Unified School District. This occurred in response to a determination by Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal that the program “contained content promoting resentment toward a race or class of people” and that “materials repeatedly reference white people as being ‘oppressors….’ in violation of state law.” The books have been boxed up and put in storage; their fate and that of the program remain in limbo.

The First Amendment is grounded on the fundamental rule that government officials, including public school administrators, may not suppress “an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” School officials have a great deal of authority and discretion to determine the curriculum, the subject of courses, and even methods of instruction. They are restrained only by the constitutional obligation to base their decisions on sound educational grounds, and not on ideology or political or other personal beliefs. Thus, school officials are free to debate the merits of any educational program, but that debate does not justify the wholesale removal of books, especially when the avowed purpose is to suppress unwelcome information and viewpoints.

School officials have insisted that the books haven’t been banned because they are still available in school libraries. It is irrelevant that the books are available in the library – or at the local bookstore. School officials have removed materials from the curriculum, effectively banning them from certain classes, solely because of their content and the messages they contain. The effort to “prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, [or] religion” is the essence of censorship, whether the impact results in removal of all the books in a classroom, seven books, or only one.

Students deserve an education that provides exposure to a wide range of topics and perspectives, including those that are controversial. Their education has already suffered from this political and ideological donnybrook, which has caused massive disruption in their classes and will wreak more havoc as teachers struggle to fill the educational vacuum that has been created.

Book-banning and thought control are antithetical to American law, tradition and values. In Justice Louis Brandeis's famous words, the First Amendment is founded on the belief:

that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; … that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination …. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, [the Framers] eschewed silence coerced by law …. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

The First Amendment right to read, speak and think freely applies to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, religion, or national origin. We strongly urge Arizona school officials to take this commitment seriously and to return all books to classrooms and remove all restrictions on ideas that can be addressed in class.

American Association of University Professors

Cary Nelson, President

1133 19th St., NW, Suite 200

Washington, D.C. 20036

202-737-5900

crnelson@illinois.edu

American Booksellers For Free Expression

Chris Finan, President

19 Fulton Street, Suite 407

New York, NY 10038

212-587-4025

chris@abffe.org

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arizona

Alessandra Soler Meetze, Executive Director

P.O. Box 17148

Phoenix, AZ 85011-0148

602-773-6006

ameetze@acluaz.org

Antigone Books

Trudy Mills, Owner

411 N. 4th Ave.

Tucson, AZ 85705

520-792-3715

info@antigonebooks.com

Arizona English Teachers' Association
Jean Boreen, Executive Secretary
Northern Arizona University, English Department
P.O. BOX 6032
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6032
Jean.Boreen@nau.edu


Arizona Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages
Craig Lefever, President
P.O. Box 881
Yuma, AZ 85366
Craig.lefever@yc.edu

Association of American Publishers

Judith Platt, Director, Free Expression & Advocacy

455 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

202-220-4551

jplatt@publishers.org

Association of American University Presses

Peter Givler, Executive Director

28 West 36th Street, Suite 602

New York, NY 10018

212-989-1010

pgivler@aaupnet.org

Atlanta’s Music & Books

Joan Werner, Owner

38 Main Street
Bisbee, AZ 85603

520-432-9976

Authors Guild

Paul Aiken, Executive Director

31 East 32nd Street, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10016

212-563-5904

PAiken@authorsguild.org

Center for Expansion of Language and Thinking

Dr. Kathryn F. Whitmore, President

N275 Lindquist Center

The University of Iowa

Iowa City, IA 52242

319-335-5434

Kathryn-whitemore@uiowa.edu

Changing Hands Bookstore

Gayle Shanks and Bob Sommer, Owners

6428 S McClintock Drive

Tempe, AZ 85283

480-730-0205

inbox@changinghands.com

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

Charles Brownstein, Executive Director

255 West 36th Street, Suite 501

New York, NY 10018

212-679-7151

charles.brownstein@cbldf.org

Freedom to Read Foundation, an affiliate of the American Library Association

Barbara M. Jones, Executive Director

50 East Huron Street

Chicago, IL 60611

312-280-4226

bjones@ala.org

International Reading Association

Richard M. Long, Ed.D., Director, Government Relations

444 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 524

Washington, DC 20001

(202) 624-8801

rlong@reading.org

Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association

Laura Ayrey, Executive Director

8020 Springshire Drive

Park City, UT 84098

435-649-6079

laura@mountainsplains.org

National Coalition Against Censorship

Joan Bertin, Executive Director

19 Fulton Street, Suite 407

New York, NY 10038

212-807-6242

bertin@ncac.org

National Council for the Social Studies

Susan Griffin, Executive Director

8555 16th St, Ste 500

Silver Spring, MD  20910

 301.588.1800 x 103

sgriffin@ncss.org

National Council of Teachers of English

Millie Davis, Division Director

Communications and Affiliate Services

1111 West Kenyan Road

Urbana, IL 61801

800-369-6283 ext. 3634

mdavis@ncte.org 

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Kichoon Yang, Executive Director
1906 Association Drive

Reston, VA 20191-1502

703-620-9840

kyang@nctm.org

National Education Association

Michael D. Simpson, Assistant General Counsel

NEA Office of General Counsel

1201 16th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20036

202-822-7035

msimpson@nea.org

National Youth Rights Association

Alex Koroknay-Palicz, Executive Director

1101 15th Street, NW Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202-835-1739

akpalicz@youthrights.org

PEN American Center

Larry Siems, Director, Freedom to Write & International Programs

588 Broadway

New York, NY 10012

212-334-1660 ext. 105

lsiems@pen.org

PEN Center USA

Adam Somers, Executive Director

P.O. Box 6037

Beverly Hills, CA 90212

323-424-4939

adam@penusa.org

People For the American Way

Debbie Liu, General Counsel

1101 15th Street NW, Suite 600

Washington, D.C. 20005

202-467-4999

dliu@pfaw.org

Reach Out and Read

Anne-Marie Fitzgerald

Senior Director of National and State Programs

56 Roland Street, Suite 100D

Boston, MA 02129

618-455-0600

Reading is Fundamental, Inc.

Carol Hampton Rasco, President/CEO

1255 23^rd Street NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20037

202-536-3500

Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators

Lin Oliver, Executive Director

8271 Beverly Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90048

323-782-1010

linoliver@scbwi.org

Spark Teacher Education Institute

Educational Praxis, Inc.

P.O. Box 409

Putney, Vermont 05346

802-258-9212

Student Press Law Center

Frank LoMonte, Executive Director

1101 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 1100

Arlington, VA 22209-2275 USA

703-807-1904

flomonte@splc.org

TESOL International Association

John Segota, CAE, Associate Executive Director for Public Policy & Professional Relations

1925 Ballenger Ave., Suite 550

Alexandria, VA 22314

703-518-2513

jsegota@tesol.org

(List in formation)

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For further information contact:

Joan Bertin, National Coalition Against Censorship, 212-807-6222, Bertin@ncac.org

or 

Chris Finan, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, 212-587-4025, chris@Abffe.org