Spanish-Speaking Student Gets Apology

[Judi Lynn]

Spanish-Speaking Student Gets Apology
Kansas School Superintendent Apologizes to Student Suspended for Speaking Spanish at School
The Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Kan. Dec 9, 2005 — A school superintendent apologized to a student who was suspended last week for speaking Spanish at school.

Zach Rubio, a 16-year-old high school junior, was sent home from the Endeavor Alternative School on Nov. 28 for talking in Spanish at lunch and later in the day. Principal Jennifer Watts sent him home and suspended him through the following day.

District officials said Watts told the boy's father the suspension was a direct result of his speaking Spanish. Superintendent of Schools Bobby Allen reversed the suspension within hours of learning about it from the father, the district said.

"As soon as he found out, he contacted the parent and said that should not have happened," said Bart Swartz, the district's executive director of certified personnel.
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1389917




SPANISH AT SCHOOL TRANSLATES TO SUSPENSION
Written by T.R. Reid - Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, 09 December 2005
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.
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The National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group, says that 20 percent of the U.S. school-age population is Latino. For half of those Latino students, the native language is Spanish.
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http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=419&Itemid=27