The one year anniversary of the takeover of the TUSD Governing Board meeting will be celebrated by “students” who are calling for a “National Day of Action on Thursday, April 26.” One year ago tomorrow, mostly college students chained themselves to the chairs of TUSD Governing Board members, while Board members Adelita Grijalva and Judy Burns applauded.
A group, which calls itself UNIDOS is asking supporters to print out wanted posters with the face of Board member Michael Hicks on them, “We are asking if you all would post the attached images everywhere. Print them out, post them all over your town or even do your own solidarity actions. We want it to be known throughout the nation that all eyes are on TUSD and that they are on the wrong side of history. Please re-post this to so that all your contacts and to any organizations who would like to take part in this day of action can be informed. Thank you for all your support in helping us through our struggle.”
The students from Tucson High’s MEChA group are also announcing an event they are sponsoring at the University of Arizona on May 1. “Communities Under Fire” AZ Ethnic Studies Bans, Past and Present (1998-2012): The Story of TUSD’s Ban on Middle East Studies (MES), will be the subject.
Despite complaints that an anti-Semitic sentiment was being fostered in TUSD’s Mexican American Studies students last year, the district has taken no action to ensure that those concerns have been addressed. Last year, after the takeover, the MAS students participated in an occupied people’s event in which they explained how their “occupation” in Tucson by the white oppressors was similar to the occupation of Palestine.
However, the University of Arizona’s Mexican American Studies Department is also under fire by the TUSD MAS supporters. Just this week they wrote a demand letter to the head of the department, due to their disappointment that he “had communication with John Pedicone while he is threatening our faculty/students and publicly stating he is working with our faculty, more explicitly working with the University of Arizona’s Mexican American & Raza Studies Department.
The group claims that the communication, “amounts to allowing Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) to usurp our agency as an academic department. We expect our department head to stand up for our faculty and defend our program. Also, we expect you to maintain open communication with the students in this department who have sacrificed time and energy to build a sustainable community department here. It is this community that supports Mexican American & Raza Studies students in their efforts to complete their education.”
The group scolded Dr. Estrada, “We have yet to see you take an active stance supporting TUSD’s Ethnic Studies program, which amounts to support for the alumni from the K-12 department who constitute a significant percentage of students in this department here at the university, and who have furthermore created the community atmosphere of this program. Much of the success of our department is, in part, due to the work of TUSD alumni who are now university students, in the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP) and UNIDOS and other allied groups.”
The demand letter confirms what critics have been saying about the TUSD classes; that they are a pipeline for the University for students into their MAS program. Few of the student protestors in last year’s takeover were current TUSD students. Only two of those chained to Board members’ chairs were TUSD students, although the media portrayed them as desperate students trying to save their own classes.
Last year’s takeover of the made national headlines.
During the melee, a now former staff member assaulted a member of the public, attendees who opposed the classes were trapped in the room and had to be escorted to their cars by several police. No charges were filed against any of the protesters, in an effort to “keep the peace” and keep the city of Tucson calm.
Emboldened by the inaction of the Board, and smitten by the attention of the national press coverage last year, protestors set about making news again two weeks ago. Some protestors linked themselves together with zip ties, while one set off one smoke bomb in the crowded building. Another protestor was prevented from setting off the second bomb they brought into the room.
At the time of the protest, the district security was told by the TUSD administration to not release the name of male who had set off the smoke bomb. After much public outcry over several days, the Board voted to release the names to the Tucson Police Department.
The district’s superintendent Pedicone and board member Miguel Cuevas have been too busy to address the concerns of various stakeholders these last few days due to the fact that they have been attending a lavish conference in Boston. The National School Board Association conference, which is the annual hot ticket for overpaid schools administrators, featured Soledad O’Brien as the general session speaker.
Dr. Estrada did respond to radical racist blogger known as the Three Sonorans. The blogger noted on his site, “In my email communication to Antonio Estrada, MAS Department head his reply to my email was a one-liner – “All of you are way out of line!”
The educational organization, with close ties to Bill Ayers, the AERA, has reportedly contacted the Special Master in the district’s desegregation case and demanded that the NAS classes be reinstated. For years Bill Ayers head up the “social justice” arm of the American Education Research Association. Last year, Augie Romero presented a paper to the organization prior to the takeover. The subject of the paper was student resistance.
2011 AERA Annual Meeting & Exhibition
April 8 –April 12, 2011
New Orleans, Louisiana
Keynote Speaker: Bill Ayers
Presenters: Augie Romero’s in session submission: Students and Communities Organizing for Social Justice in Arizona
Augie Romero was just put in charge of developing the district’smulticultural curriculum. Dr. Pedicone has Romero working closely with the district’s attorney, Sam Brown, on the new desegregation plan. Previously Romero was responsible for developing the Equity Plan. However, after more than two years with no Equity Plan in place, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals placed the district back under court control.
The Court found that the district acted in bad faith. The district did not fulfill its promises, including an Equity Plan, and did not implement programs which would close the achievement gap.
Related articles:
TUSD’s Mexican American Studies appeal leads to scrutiny of MEChA
MEChA, the movimiento and anti-Semitism: Fact from fiction
TUSD’s Pedicone testifies in “Ethnic Studies” hearing
TUSD’s MAS curriculum for grades K-12 includes Aztec spirituality Part II
America Without Borders: TUSD’s Mexican American Studies elementary lesson
TUSD’s Mexican American Studies appeal hearing concludes
TUSD’s Mexican American Studies educators claim to create resentment, and re-birth