The Houston Chronicle is reporting that the Hempstead Middle School Principal Amy Lacey, will not have her contract renewed with the Hempstead School Board because she reportedly announced, via intercom, that students were not to speak Spanish on the school’s campus.
The Hispanic population of the rural area, roughly 50 miles northwest of Houston, is growing quickly, and Latino advocates say that it’s important to allow Spanish in public schools.
“When you start banning aspects of ethnicity or cultural identity,” says Augustin Pinedo, director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Region 18, “it sends the message that the child is not wanted: ‘We don’t want your color. We don’t want your kind.’ They then tend to drop out early.”
Such fast growth is pervasive in Texas, says Steve Murdock, a professor at Rice University and director of the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas. Half of all Texas public-school students are now Hispanic, he notes. “When you look at issues related to education in Texas, to a great extent, you’re looking at the education of Hispanic children.”
Texas, along with the rest of the nation, is rapidly changing as the United States over the course of several presidents has failed to enforce the boarders or effectively dealt with illegal immigration once it has occurred. Now communities are more demographically made up of Mexican citizens that have a voice in how American schools operate.
This is just a reality of the choices we have made and now we reap what we sow, for better or worse.
