Posted on 08/10/2014 2:34:17 PM PDT by Kaslin
On November 12, 2013, Amy Lacey, the principal of Texas’ Hempstead Middle School, was placed on administrative leave and subsequently fired when she made a simple request to students: speak English.
Now that the gag order has expired, Lacey is speaking out about what happened that day, dispelling rumors that she banned Spanish from the school’s campus.
“I informed students it would be best to speak English in the classrooms to the extent possible, in order to help prepare them for [state] tests,” she wrote in a letter to the Houston Chronicle explaining her side of the story. “It is important to note that I did not ban the use of Spanish anywhere in the school or at any time, even though teachers had reported to me that they had experienced instances in which students had been asked to stop talking during instruction, and they responded that it was their right to speak Spanish — ignoring the fact that they shouldn’t have been speaking [in any language] during class without permission. The perception of the teachers was that students were being disrespectful and disrupting learning, and they believed they could get away with it by claiming racism.”
By telling students to speak English, Lacey was not being racist, she was merely pointing out that the academic language in Texas is, by law, English.
“Even so, I did not suggest that there would be any adverse consequences for any student speaking Spanish at any time. I merely encouraged students to speak English in classrooms by advising them that it would be to their advantage to do so especially with regard to state testing,” she continued. “English language immersion is an accepted best-practice teaching strategy, and Hempstead ISD board policy provides for its practice.”
She ended the letter thanking those who supported her “even when true facts were never given to the media” because she and others were not allowed to publicly defend her position.
“I think the public needs to know that in public education there are only one or two district personnel designated to talk to media,” she wrote in closing, “so any teachers that would have liked to speak on my behalf were not allowed without risking their job status.”
We live within 10 miles of the Peace Bridge crossing into Fort Erie, Ont... I haven’t been to CA in quite awhile, last I recall Customs was in English & French (both ways) — however, it wouldn’t be surprising if that’s changed now.
It would be too crass/disgusting to interpret.
I recall from Robert Caro's first biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, that Johnson (as a Texas schoolteacher) insisted, very strictly and with a great deal of discipline, that his (largely Hispanic) students speak ONLY English in class.
Nice looking blonde... obviously a racist!! /sarc
Principals and other administrators usually aren’t unionized.
My wife is a Spaniard (Celtic, from NW Spain); many of the Inca-types around here assume that only people that look like them speak Spanish, and if they say something assuming she doesn’t understand she quickly corrects that misconception (in Spanish). Just as many Americans assume Spanish speakers all look Mexican, many Hispanics assume the same thing. I speak Spanish (learned on my own in an environment where there is no lack of opportunity to practice, then augmented by marrying a Spaniard), and it puzzles them to no end. Maybe they assume nobody would see any value in learning it; nowadays many jobs in my area are closed to you if you don’t speak it.
Accomodating them only ensures they won’t assimilate. When many Mexicans in California voted against bilingual education, it turned out they simply wanted their children to have better jobs than they had. That was years ago, and they already realized that their children would be marginalized without English immersion. Libs were furious...
I understand; one of the problems is that we aren’t getting the educated populations from Latin America. A shocking number of our immigrants are illiterate in Spanish. I asked a Hispanic working in our cafeteria (in Spanish) what the word for “pretzel” is, and she replied with the word for “cookie”. While not an indication of illiteracy, it certainly doesn’t indicate “high school education”.
Were you assuming this was the principal? This is the hispanic mother of one of the students. Cool down
My SIL did that in Costco recently. He & my daughter were eating, and noticed they were the only ones speaking English. Several were nodding at them while talking in Spanish, so my SIL (2 tours in Iraq) began talking to my daughter in Arabic.
After he gave a long comment, she asked what one of the words meant. My SIL replied, “That means fat” in a loud enough whisper to be overheard. It didn’t, but he figured no one would know.
There was a dead silence at the tables around them. They finished their food, got up and left.
Love it!
Unless there is more to this story than we’ve been told, this woman should sue for wrongful termination.
Hemstead school District Minority enrollment is 79% of the student body (majority Hispanic), which is more than the state average of 69%.
Free Lunch Student Eligibility Breakdown
Eligible for Reduced Lunch: 25 (6.2%)
Eligible for Free Lunch: 232 (57.1%)
Eligible for Either Reduced or Free Lunch: 257 (63.3%)
These hispanics who refuse to learn proper english are the ones who drop out of school early and will be seen on the front page of the newspaper..Hemstead is not that big of town.Wait until the influx of illegals who just arrived will really put a strain teach spanish to speak english.In Houston they do not care.Thyey want it to be spanish. Which is why SWH is GHETTO from to many illegals as is NWH..
Both sides of town in the news everyday..Illegals obama says are as American as anybody else except when it comes to learning english they want you to learn spanish
Read your link through to the end. You will find there that the one and same Flores-Smith is the one and same superintendent who made headlines in the principal, Amy Lacey, suspension and non-renewed contract affair.
Wish I could send you the March story on chron.com where Flores-Smith is quoted giving a brief laundry list of other reasons, besides the language accusation, for firing Lacey. I can’t function on my tablet very well for sending links.
Thing is — all the kids == even those attending ESL classes are learning English. They might speak Spanish at home, but most of them want to fit in and speak English at school.
It seems to be the socialist democrat’s mode of operation to keep classes and races from ever making any educational progress, and entirely away from any proclivity for self reliance.
The ugly, ugly truth about government schools, plainly stated. And teachers dare not speak on behalf of Christianity, heterosexuality, abstinence, conservatism, patriotism, right to work, earned self-esteem, shame, and on and on.
American Government scools were invaded by Columbia University trained Marxist-socialists for decades.
Thanks. I read the article where Flores-Smith listed
multiple reasons for the termination.
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