Randy Parraz called for a rally today in Tucson to begin the recall of Tucson Unified School Board member Michael Hicks. Parraz managed to rally about 12 adults and two children including Steve Leal, a former Tucson City Council member, and rabid racist blogger, David Abie Morales, at the Valenzuela Youth Center, in South Tucson.
Parraz had hoped to attract “community leaders, members, activists and organizers” to begin the recall effort, according to the Tucson Weekly’s TUSD Mexican American Studies obsessed writer, Mari Herreras. Herreras wrote that the “recall paperwork is expected to be filed with the Pima County Schools Superintendent’s office in the next two weeks.”
Parraz told the Weekly, “I’m coming in to see what extent people in Tucson are willing to work on this issue and see if we can provide our expertise.” According to the Weekly, “Parraz said he hopes people who attend the meeting leave their affiliations or camps behind — Grijavalistas, Eckstrom supporters, Save Ethnic Studies and everything in between and on all the sides.”
Some of the various groups have been embroiled in a turf war of sorts; vying for the fame and followers the issue has won from the radical progressive and ethnocentric extremist ranks.
Parraz told the Weekly that “he was excited to come to Tucson, but emphasized the work that needs to happen depends on who shows up to the meeting and who stays the course.” Later Parraz seemed less than excited when he told a KVOATV reporter that it wasn’t “going to be easy, we’re talking 30,000 to 35,000 signatures and we have to raise money.”
KVOA reported that an organizer said “they only have one ally on the TUSD Governing Board, that’s Adelita Grijalva and they’re hoping they can get rid of everybody else, and that will be taken care of in the November election.”
They have targeted Hicks primarily because he is the only member of the Governing Board who publically expressed concern for the students who have been used as props for propaganda purposes.
Parraz, who is considered by many to be an ethnocentric extremist, was instrumental in the recall of Senator Russell Pearce, who many consider to be an ethnocentric extremist.
Wakefield parent Tanya Alvarez, a regular fixture at most Mexican American Studies events, had her young daughter in tow today for the rally. Earlier she told a reporter that she found the district’s priorities of “following the law and finances” to be “kinda discomforting.”
Hicks says he isn’t concerned. He will wait and see if they get the signatures before he takes them seriously, until then he will keep performing his unpaid service to the students of TUSD.
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