Kid suspended for speaking Spanish

[eyez0nme]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10372148/


Spanish at school translates to suspension
Controversy caused by Kansas City incident reflects national debate


Updated: 12:31 p.m. ET Dec. 9, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Most of the time, 16-year-old Zach Rubio converses in clear, unaccented American teen-speak, a form of English in which the three most common words are "like," "whatever" and "totally." But Zach is also fluent in his dad's native language, Spanish -- and that's what got him suspended from school.

"It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.' "


But that conversation turned out to be a big problem for the staff at the Endeavor Alternative School, a small public high school in an ethnically mixed blue-collar neighborhood. A teacher who overheard the two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts ordered him to call his father and leave the school.

[eyez0nme]

Oh, the hypocrisy. In LA, there are public schools where they teach all Spanish. They don't teach any English--and if they do, only in English class--but I'm pretty sure they don't even have that. There's this girl I know, an illegal immigrant hired to work for me, who's daughter goes to school in downtown, and she knows 1 percent english. I asked her, do you go to school. Yes she did. Do they teach English. No they didn't.

Those in Kansas would probably have an heart attack if they came here.

[FireWolf238]

emmm, that's not right. that's just wrong

[Jon885]

wait a minute...the two boys? the janitor was a boy?

[Fermented Yeast Paste]

I thought it was already established (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9967813/) how backwards education in Kansas is.

That said, I'm in favor of English-only in schools (or, at least, a bilingual system that actually fucking works). However, this was, like, TOTALLY overreacting. Comprende?

[yao_yao]

when i was in kindergarten i was told off for speaking chinese, and encouraged to speak english (which was difficult cuz i didnt understand english). but i never got into trouble for it. in class yea, but on the playground it was okay.

to this day if i speak chinese in class (usually explaining things to my taiwanese classmates) i'm still scolded, but not in deep trouble.

[CrazyAce86]

Good grief. "No problemo" is spoken by everybody, even those that don't speak Spanish!

It's ridiculous. By that reasoning kids should be suspended for saying c'est la vie or sayonara or other common American phrase that is of foreign origin.

I went to one of the most backwards hick schools ever and if you spoke a foreign language in the halls no one said anything. Hell, it was encouraged sometimes!

Too bad the kid didn't have Spanish class. He could have just said that he was practicing it with another student. Still, he shouldn't have to need an excuse for that kind of hypocritical bullshit.

This is why I hate America. Hell, this is why I hate the world.

Fuckin'-a.

[Frankey-eh]

...that's weird. If that rule was implemented at my school, 90% of the school population would be suspended, heh. Japanese, Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish... they all fly around here like it's no big deal. I speak Japanese in Bio, my friends speak Chinese in History, etc.

[FireWolf238]

here it's odd to find someone who can't speak a foreign language, cupertino is basically china/japan town where everone have a phd for one thing or another, hell and the few white people here(me included) are almost always also imigrants. personally it's awsom when me and a friend could talk shit about the teacher in russian and he wouldn't understand, the one russian girl in that class would usualy get whiter than the whiteboard.

[SoulPlay]

"No problemo" is not spanish in its whole sense, its englified spanish i guess. the correct answer would be "No hay problema". Just a sidenote.... :) :o

[Ichisan]

That is plainly ridiculous. They should be praising the kid for having multi-lingual ability. In a decent school they would be.

[Roxie]

I doubt the kid is multilingual at all, sense it is a rather well known, common, spanish phrase.

I mean, heck I learned that much spanish from watching The Three Chipmunks movies!

[ZMarie]

I've read a couple of articles about this kid. Yes he is bilingual. And something this article doesn't say (which I think they did so on purpose for sensationalism, but that's just IMO) is that this is the second or third (I can't remember which) time this kid was reprimanded for speaking Spanish that day in the halls.

But that out of the way, I don't see any reason why a student should not be allowed to speak a language other than english outside the classroom, although I've worked in places that had an English Only policy. I think the principal went a little bit overboard in this case.

If I find the other article, I'll post it here as an edit.

EDIT: Found it.

http://www.kansascitykansan.com/articles/2005/12/09/news/local/news4.txt

[scan2001]

I agree that the principal went a little overboard.

[Frankey-eh]

here it's odd to find someone who can't speak a foreign language, cupertino is basically china/japan town where everone have a phd for one thing or another, hell and the few white people here(me included) are almost always also imigrants. personally it's awsom when me and a friend could talk shit about the teacher in russian and he wouldn't understand, the one russian girl in that class would usualy get whiter than the whiteboard.

O_O I live in cupertino too! But I'm pretty sure you don't know me. I don't know about you, but that's a relief to me... too many real-life encounters lately.

But yeah, Cupertino is only a rich China/Japan town on this side. If you got to the Fremont or Cupertino High area, you'd see a lot more caucassians and latinos.

[Kyoushu]

Just one more reason for me to want to get the hell out of this damned state.

[Masa the Masta]

I live in California, where I'd like to think it's one of the most racially open places in the world..

This boggles me, it really does. I'm a spanish speaker, and sometimes if someone didn't know what someone else was saying, I had to play interpreter often. :confused:

[Xephon]

Kansas, what a surprise. I've never understood why Dorothy wanted to go back to that shithole. :p

[Kyoushu]

God, you don't even know...

And I'll probably end up being here an extra four years for college. >.>

[Glitch ErrorWeaver]

I wonder how long it will take for the ACLU to swoop in and sue these conservative fucktards. I really hope this shit gets that school taken to fucking task.

[Kass]

He should have been suspended for the way he speaks english.

It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.' "


Whatever. I like totally want to like slap him upside his totally empty head.

[more cheerios]

I think speaking other languages (outside of the classroom, of course) should be encouraged. Multicultural diversity is a good thing. :)


Edit: As long as they aren't using it to insult other children.

[Soli]

This remeinds me of the book Nothing but the Truth by Avi. A student was suspended for 'singing the national anthem' when he was actually disrupting class by humming the song annoyingly.

Maybe this isn't the whole story. It does only get the boy's comments, not the teacher who sent them to the principal...

All I'm saying is that this article seems biased to me. *shrug*

[Jerith]

The school issued a apology pretty quick once this story received some publicity. The boy is now suing... for what, I don't know. Since they admitted their guilt, about the only thing they can sue for is a policy change.

[Xuande]

I don't have any sources on hand to cite, but I remember reading some linguistics research that indicated that English-only schools for illiterate (whether because of poverty and poor schooling or just young age) speakers of a native language not English are a bad idea. If someone never becomes literate in their native language, they find it much harder to learn to read and write a language acquired later.

[Kass]

Actually, you have it backwards. Nationwide, our bilingual schools are failing at a much higher rate than schools that have abandoned bilingual education in favor of immersion teaching. California actually leads the way in this trend. They abandoned the traditional bilingual education programs in favor of total immersion for non-English speaking students. Bilingual education gives you kids who are illiterate in two languages. Immersion education for languages is far more successful. That is why so many high school and college language programs do immersion study abroad programs.

I think that classes, save foreign language classes, should be taught in all English. Outside the classroom, they can speak whatever language they want. The simple fact is English is the de facto language of the US and to be successful, people have to be able to get by in English. The best way to learn is immersion.

[eyez0nme]

All the schools in LA are bilingual.

[Kenshin]

He should have been suspended for the way he speaks english.
.
.
Whatever. I like totally want to like slap him upside his totally empty head.And the way he speaks spanish as well... "No problema"? What the hell is that? Yo hablar espaņol correcta, estarme suspendido por hablando espaņol...:rolleyes:


(:( I just killed 1/3 of my neurons writing like that...*sigh*)
Anyway, no student should be punished for speaking his native/second or other language to another student, in areas other than the classroom itself; however, if it is in the classroom, every student should abide by the teacher's rules, no matter how "unjust" they are. They are rules, after all.

The school was wrong in doing that (could that be classified as a sort of racism, maybe?) but meh, since the whole background of the story is uncertain, it's difficult to comment on that.

[Frankey-eh]

Bilingual education gives you kids who are illiterate in two languages. Immersion education for languages is far more successful. That is why so many high school and college language programs do immersion study abroad programs.

that's very true...
When I first came to US, in fourth grade, I was put in an ESL program. I was placed in a classroom full of ESL kids. There, I met Japanese friends and stuck to them like glue. They've lived in US longer than I have, and thus were better at English than me. They became my umbrella. By April, my English became good enough to say "I don't understand". My grades were C's and D's.

Then, in April, we moved to a white-dominant neighborhood. There was only one kid who spoke Cantonese in the whole grade level, and Cantonese wasn't even my most fluent language back then. Neither was it hers. Often she didn't know a word, so I only approached her the first two weeks. After that, I just... went on my own. By September of the next year, I was fluent enough to get A's. And in another year, I passed ESL.

Now I'm back in another immigrant-dominant city, learning French from a real French native, and I like to believe that it's improving exponentially.

Immigrants-dominant environment is the worst place to learn English, best place to learn a foreign language. ^_^

[Xuande]

I was speaking specifically about the case of illiterate students. And that doesn't require everything to be taught bilingually, simply that they be taught reading in their native language as well.