Sahuaro baseball coach Mark Chandler has been reinstated after parents, teachers, and students last week called for an end to a witch hunt by Tucson Unified School District administrators. Chandler had been placed on leave for two weeks due to a disgruntled parent’s complaint about her child’s playing time.
Just last week, Chandler’s supporters filled the TUSD Governing Board meeting room and spilled over into an anteroom to ask the Board to reinstate him. According to sources, even the son of the complaining parent joined his teammates in support of Chandler.
Emotional testimony on behalf of Chandler came from former players, fellow coaches, parents and current members of the high school baseball team.
Now, comments made by Board member Cam Juarez to the boys as they were leaving the room have raised eyebrows and concerns. It appears to many that Juarez exploited the presence of the young men and offered them enticements to speak out on political budget decisions.
As the emotional young men were leaving the meeting, one yelled out to all of the Board members, “We love him, you know.” In response Juarez said, “We love you too – and we love it when you stand up for teachers. You know what? If we had more of you guys showing up when they come to take $90 million dollars – that would be awesome too. Then we could save all your programs,” Juarez said referring to Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s budget.
Enticing students to perform in a political manner for reward is considered indoctrination, and therefore inappropriate in education circles.
Popular Tucson radio show host and former teacher, James T. Harris, discussed those comments with TUSD Board member Michael Hicks. Hicks, a teacher at Pima Community College said that Juarez’s comments were “not something I would say.” Hicks told Harris that Juarez was the “same member who trotted up on the stage telling students to tell their parents to go to (Tucson) Mayor and Council chambers,” referring to Juarez’s visit to Davis Bilingual Elementary Magnet School with Dolores Huerta last year. Juarez and Huerta were recruiting kids to attend a City Council meeting in support of a proposal to offer City staff a paid holiday in honor of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
“I don’t believe that as board members we should be getting students to do our bidding for us. They do enough in regards to leaving school and demonstrating, and all this,” said Hicks.
Hicks pointed out that district leaders had done it “just the other day when the State was looking at cuts.” Hicks explained that district administrators took students from their schools to participate in a demonstration at Tucson High. “Instead of being in their schools, and being in their classes, they are at Tucson High listening to our superintendent talk about what they should be doing in regards to going to the State Legislature and talking to the State legislators. We should not be telling students to leave school and to come and demonstrate for whatever. That is a personal decision. It is up to the parents of these children. It’s not for educators,” said Hicks.
Since his arrival, Sanchez has carefully used kids to push his agenda. From dropouts to honor students, when Sanchez needs to create a narrative, he has not been hesitant to use kids.
Hicks told Harris’ audience that he did not believe that Sanchez was giving him “good information” or “being direct.” Hicks said that he was now going to insist that his one-on-one meetings with Sanchez include another person. “I want to meet with another Board member there, or someone else. The reason is that I want someone else to hear what I am hearing. Now, the superintendent says he will not meet with me one-on-one in a public setting, but he’ll go to a national conference with three other board members,” said Hicks referring to the National School Board Association annual meeting this year in New Orleans. TUSD Board members Juarez, Adelita Grijalva, and Kristel Foster joined Sanchez for the event.
“He tends to forget that he works for five board members,” said Hicks, “not just three. We are still here. He is still supposed to report to us but apparently he feels that he only needs report to Ms. Grijalva and the other two board members.”
Harris stated that he believed that Sanchez’s treatment of Hicks and Stegeman was based on bigotry. Sanchez made national headlines for his apparent dislike for non-Hispanics. In that case, Sanchez offended many people when he implied that white people do not want to support schools for kids, who “don’t look like them.”
In the case of Juarez, he offended a taxpayer and father whose children does attended the rally at Davis Bilingual Magnet School.
According to the father, the atmosphere of the rally was exciting; the students ranging in age from about 5 to 11 years old were swept away with the chants and cheering by the adults on stage. He then described having a chill run down his spine as the children and the atmosphere in the room transformed.
“These kids were being told that they needed to hold each other’s hands, which was cool, we all should be supportive of each other in this world,” said the father, who wishes to remain anonymous for his children’s well-being. “But then all of the sudden the principal was yelling viva Cesar Chavez and viva Dolores Huerta, and si se puede, and then they started the Cesar Chavez clap and the room changed. This was not to honor a civil rights hero, it was a political rally.”
“It had everything you need to turn kids into little followers. The chanting, the kids’ pictures of Cesar and Delores all around the room, kids’ drawings of the migrant worker symbol,” continued the father. “It had all the stuff you need. The cult of personality and kids being told that they were all one and not individuals. It was really bad. They were indoctrinating these kids.”
The TUSD administration and Board have been warned before about using government resources for political activities. For years, Board member Adelita Grijalva and her father, progressive Congressman Raul Grijalva have used the District as a organizing and fundraising arm of their campaigns.
One long time educator said the inappropriate use of students showed once again TUSD’s dysfunctional culture that puts the political needs of adults far ahead of the learning needs of students. “Had the school assembly just been a celebration of Cesar Chavez’s life that would have been fine,” said the educator, “but urging the kids to do stuff for a political cause was way over the top.”
Many believed that Juarez’s comments to the young boys, who were obviously traumatized by the temporary loss of their coach, was not only inappropriate, but reckless. The reckless comments could lead students to believe that their actions could result in a loss or gain in funding on a state level.
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