The radical “student” group UNIDOS has been joined by Pima County Democratic Chairman Jeff Rogers in a call for the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board to appeal a judge’s finding that the Mexican American Studies classes violate state law.
Pima County Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Rogers has chosen to ignore TUSD Governing Board President and member of the Democratic Party, Dr Mark Stegeman’s testimony that TUSD’s Mexican American Studies classes operate like “a cult” and the district’s Superintendent’s belief that students were “exploited” by political operatives.
In a statement released by the party, Rogers repeats the lie that Raza Studies proponents put forward that the classes have increased “graduation rates and encourages students to pursue a college education.”
As the democratic segregationists of the old South once argued, Rogers states, “Republicans talk a lot about local control, but when the desires of the locals run counter to the Phoenix politicians, we find out quickly just how committed to local control they truly are.”
“We will not sit idly by as politicians play these political games at the expense of our children,” said Pima County Democratic Party Chair Jeff Rogers. Defenders of local control in order to perpetuate racism and segregated schools included democrats George Wallace of Alabama, Ross Barnett of Mississippi, Orville Faubus of Arkansas, and Lester Maddox of Georgia.
In an email dated April 28, the TUSD Superintendent Pedicone wrote of the students, “Too bad, Judy that they are so well meaning and exploited,” in response to email from TUSD Board member Judy Burns in which she describes the student takeover as “pretty impressive.”
Last week, Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, John Huppenthal and Administrative Law Judge Kowal found that district has allowed its students to be segregated by the color of their skin, and that that the district has allowed political operatives to teach its students to resent others based on the color of their skin
UNIDOS, the radical “student” was used by political operatives last year in the takeover of the April 26 School Board meeting. The group now claims that they intend to “overthrow injustice,” in a statement released yesterday.
They claim that they will give “our community back the power the school board has taken,” and demand that the “TUSD board take a stand and appeal John Huppenthal’s decision to get rid of Mexican American Studies. At the same time, UNIDOS will no longer address the school board directly, Tuesday Jan. 10th, 2012.”
Just like George Wallace and Ross Barnett standing at the school house door trying to stop integration, UNIDOS employed tactics to last spring to prevent community members’ access to school buildings. In that continuing effort they advise that, “One of our member representatives will read a statement addressing our next steps in the continued campaign to save our classes,” in front of the district’s offices. The district has taken cosmetic steps to allow access to the public by placing cones on the ground in front of the central office’s front doors.
Gabby Saucedo Mercer, a Mexican immigrant and current Republican candidate for Congress said, “In this wonderful country of ours we outlawed segregation based on the color of our skin decades ago. To think that in this day and age there are people who demand that children are placed in segregated classrooms is despicable. I urge other proud Mexican Americans to reject the Democratic Party’s return to their segregationist past.”