Hartford’s Hispanic schoolchildren are particularly isolated and many suffer language barriers in addition to segregation by race and poverty, the head of the city’s bilingual education program testified in the Sheff vs. O’Neill school desegregation trial Friday.

“We have students who are totally isolated. They really don’t know anything but their own culture,” Adnelly Marichal told Superior Court Judge Harry Hammer in his West Hartford courtroom. “Some of these students don’t even need to learn English in their community. They are not being exposed to the larger community.”

Plaintiffs in the case, which ended its sixth week in court Friday, are seeking a court order to both desegregate schools in metropolitan Hartford and substantially upgrade city schools.

The 19 plaintiffs, all current or former area students, charge that city schools are collapsing under the weight of poverty and social problems. Attorneys for the plaintiffs say Hartford’s inferior schools violate the state constitution’s guarantee of equal schools.

Marichal said any plan to move Spanish-speaking students from Hartford’s bilingual program into the suburbs must include setting up bilingual programs in the suburban schools — a costly proposition.

“This is a great opportunity for children to have dual-language programs,” she said, adding that it would be an advantage for the area to create more bilingual graduates.

There are more than 6,000 students in the city’s special bilingual program, which serves mostly Spanish-speaking youngsters, although there are programs for Portuguese, Laotian, Vietnamese and Italian. The Spanish bilingual program, like the other languagues, encourages students to make the transition to English-only classes over time.

Friday, Hammer asked Marichal if bilingual programs are part of Hartford’s problem.

“The general public has the idea that its purpose is to create a separate educational stream,” he said. “Is there another kind of isolation in Hartford public schools because of the very fact there there is a bilingual program?” Marichal replied that her program is working and students are going into the mainstream, although it can take as long as seven years.

But she testified that the Hartford bilingual program desperately needs more money for teachers, supplies and administrators. She said the schools are violating the terms of a consent decree settlement from a court case from the 1970s by parents challenging Hartford’s inadequate bilingual program.

Among other problems, she said, are high mobility, which is the number of students who move during the school year and disrupt their education; students who have not been in school for some time; and outdated textbooks and materials.

Also testifying Friday was Virginia Pertillar, mother of plaintiff Martin J. Hamilton. “I pay taxes,” she said. “We should receive a quality and equitable education.” Like other plaintiffs who have testified, she was not cross-examined by the state.



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