Update: Initial reports from MAS propagandist David Abie Morales and others were that over 100 students marched out of classes and headed to the TUSD central office, however, a district employee, who took a “head count” reports that 60 students made their way to the offices.
Students from Pueblo High School, Cholla High School, Wakefield Junior High School, and Tucson High School left their schools and walked to the district’s central offices to protest upon the arrival of federally court appointed Special Master, University of Maryland professor emeritus Willis D. Hawley, for a meeting with the district’s Superintendent Pedicone and Deputy Superintendent Maria Menconi today. The district’s offices are on “soft lock down.”
Hawley was appointed by Judge Bury to oversee the development of a plan to fix the problems long associated with the district’s neglect of its students. The Judge appointed the Special Master to work with district representatives and the Fisher and Mendoza plaintiffs in the matter of the decades old desegregation case. The Fisher plaintiffs had sought the Special Master due to the district’s continuing refusal to act in good faith.
The Fisher plaintiffs have only wanted the district to close the achievement gap through the implementation of known practices and policies. Instead political operatives in the district created programs such as the Mexican American Studies classes. The Ninth Circuit Court’s decision to place the district under court supervision made the Post Unitary Status Plan (PUSP) moot. The PUSP was the primary justification used by proponents of the classes for their continuation.
Menconi was a witness for the district in the Mexican American Studies appeal. She was hired by the distict as the curriculum guru’ according to john Peduicone. When asked on the stand about the overall state of the district’s curricula. She responded the district “has a lot of work to do.” She stated that she finds “holes and gaps in a lot of things.” She testified that Math was the most pressing issue, and that the district “had fallen off a cliff” in terms of performance and the situation was “dire, dire.”
It is unclear how the students learned of the meeting or if Menconi and the district has repaired the math curriculum. According to Mark Stegeman, in his constituent newsletter, the district has not taken steps to repair the Mexican American Studies curriculum. Months ago, Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Huppenthal found the classes to violate law and instructed the district to develop a legal Mexican American Studies program.
According to the district’s spokesperson the students will receive an unexcused absence and serve detention. During the last walkout, only TUSD Board member Hicks called for the students to be disciplined. Members of the public have asked district officials to investigate whether adults have played a role in the students’ actions. This week the Raza propagandist Morales reported that students serving detention over the weekend were akin to farm workers being exploited by white society. Morales, otherwise known as the Three Sonorans, made no comment about adult “educators” exploiting children for their political agendas.