Texas Teacher Suspended for 'Go Back to Mexico' Comment

[MineralMan]

21. If this teacher has been in that district, or anywhere in Texas

for 23 years, I cannot understand why she would not be bilingual. That's more than enough time to attain fluency in Spanish by mere absorption. As a teacher who encounters students for whom Spanish is the primary language, I'd learn Spanish just as fast as I possibly could if I taught there. To not do so is a statement.

I grew up in a California farming community where the Hispanic population in the 50s and 60s was close to 50%. I learned Spanish by simply being there, and every teacher in our primary and secondary schools could carry on a conversation in Spanish that had to do with students' needs. If a new teacher came who did not have any Spanish, by the end of that teacher's second year, he or she was capable of communication in that language.

I find it difficult to believe that any teacher in Texas can survive without some degree of Spanish fluency.