Complaint claims school district discriminated against Latino students

Greetings, ATS!

This one has me torn. Let me share the highlights from the article:

Two advocacy groups filed a federal complaint Tuesday alleging a North Carolina school district's treatment of three Latino families was discriminatory because it did not provide important information in Spanish.

They say that in the cases of three students and their Spanish-speaking parents, the Wake County Public School System failed to provide documents about the students' suspensions in Spanish.

That meant the parents, who speak limited English, were unable to ask questions or even appeal the suspensions, which discriminated against them on the basis of national origin and violated their civil rights, the groups say.

The school district responded by saying it has many programs in place to support and inform Latino and Spanish-speaking families. It also provided forms in Spanish,including notification of suspension, a form for parents to request information on disciplinary actions, and confirmation that a parent has made an appeal.

source

Apparently Wake county has forms written in spanish for just such an occassion, but they are "generic" forms that lack individualized information. Hence the complaint.

It should be noted that two of the three students suspended were allegedly using marijuana on campus.

In my school we have a high number of hispanic students with limited or no English skills. The kids learn fast in the immersion of a regular classroom but language is a struggle for them. And I sympathize with the parents; I've had many parents who spoke little to no English. Luckily I speak Spanish so that's not too much of a burden. Our school also provides info in Spanish, and we have a translator who volunteers to translate for parent-teacher conferences and pto meetings.

I do believe the school could have done more to explain the situation to the parents. At the same time, I don't think legal action is necessary. What think you, ATS?

I think the kids could have asked for clarification for their parents (using an in school language teacher if need be) since they would be more aware of what they could or could not understand. I can almost see the kids purposefully not doing that as to keep their own part in it as murky as possible.

The school did the minimum, but the children were more than able to clarify.

But hey... I am only guessing and I would have done the exact same thing were it me 30 years ago.

There has to be some effort on the parents to work on communicating in a language that the country they are living in uses. Any country. I can understand the need for help, but if you are planning on staying here long enough to raise your children, then it only makes sense IMO.

Like you though, legal action seems a bit over the top for a failure in communication. It seems that no matter what language we speak, we are a damned litigious society.

As far as I know, the US has no official national language. English is the de facto language, but that doesn't mean a thing in this case. You have many states with two language service and law to back it.

The school system could have been more considerate of those parents, particularly when they almost certainly knew of the situation beforehand.

On the other hand, I am myself an immigrant to a country with two de jure national languages. All information is provided in one of the two languages, neither of which are my own. However, I would not expect them to cater to me or other native English speakers any more than any other immigrants would expect to be "coddled" that way. We have to learn this bloody pain-in-the-ass language because "that's the way it is". Two national languages, period. There are regionally other languages too, as you have in the states but nationally it's just the two.

reply to post by smyleegrl


Pansy politicians are afraid to name a National Language.

All government business should be conducted in English. Providing forms in other languages is a convenience, not a right. Anyone applying for a green card or visa should agree to learning English before applying for actual citizenship.

Nobody's rights were violated, because nobody has the right to receive notifications in any particular language.

Stupid complaint.

reply to post by getreadyalready


Absolutely! It's becoming a totalitarian regime anyway. Just go ahead and tell people what to do with their lives start to finish. Might as well just lobotomize everyone. That would save time.

Seriously. Aren't you the least bit ashamed? That country was built with the power of people from all nations. It's bad enough that the power held there is disproportionately WASP. Don't insult your future further. There's room for everyone on this planet.

I'd wager that the Spanish speakers have been there longer than English speakers. Wanna challenge that?

reply to post by CosmicEgg


Fine, put all the forms in Spanish, it still makes more sense than having them in redundant and dangerous formats with so much room for miscommunication and error.

Not having a national language is ridiculous! I don't care what language they pick, make it Shoshone for all I care. My family is Apache and Shoshone, and we were surely here even before the Spanish.

The point is that we need one central language that government does business in. We can't possibly do business in every language of the globe, and if we cater to more than 1, then we have to cater to them all or someone gets their rights violated. We are setting ourselves up for failure. We need a central language.