Bilingual ban to be reconsidered

About 70 Hispanic parents protested the decision at San Bernardino city school district offices.

SAN BERNARDINO—San Bernardino school officials have decided to eliminate bilingual classes at Bonnie Oehl Elementary School next year because of Prop. 227 and concerns about segregating Spanish-speaking pupils.

But the recent decision was so unpopular that administrators pledged to reconsider the plan at a meeting with parents next week.

About 70 Hispanic parents protested the decision at San Bernardino city school district offices Wednesday. Some even called administrators racist and accused them of trying to drive Hispanic children out of their schools.

Parents joined forces with the Mexican-American Political Association and filed a complaint with the district against Oehl Principal Linda Campbell and other administrators, alleging their civil rights were violated because no one asked their opinion.

Campbell denied the allegations, and said the classes may be scrapped because of factors beyond her control.

“We feel like we’re being betrayed by this principal because she never asked anybody what they thought,” said Patricio Gonzalez, a father of three and chairman of the Oehl school site council.

“We need somebody to really sit down with us, and if they say, ‘You guys are a bunch of wetbacks and you don’t belong here anymore,’ then we’ll go to a higher authority to find out what’s going on,” Gonzalez said.

Parent demand for bilingual education in the San Bernardino City Unified School District has driven Oehl, along with other campuses, to continue to offer the programs in spite of Prop. 227’s directive that children be taught mostly in English.

Christa Wallis, program specialist for English learners, said the district has collected 2,000 requests from parents to keep their children in bilingual classes, and most have been approved by school principals.

Under 227, approved by state voters in June and implemented Aug. 2, school districts are required to offer bilingual classes at schools where administrators approve waivers for 20 students or more in the same grade. Parents may seek the waivers if their children already know English, are at least 10 years old or have special physical, emotional, psychological or educational needs.

As parent requests pour in, board members of the 45,000-student district await response to a request they sent to the state to exempt all San Bernardino schools from Prop. 227 requirements. The request is on hold because the state board of education is appealing a judge’s decision that it must consider waivers.

Campbell said a voluntary desegregation plan that has been in place in the district for 25 years influenced the decision to cut Oehl’s bilingual classes, which currently enroll about 60 children in kindergarten through grade two.

Mildredan Ward, who oversees the district desegregation program, said most of the Oehl children in bilingual classes are bused in with other limited-English speaking pupils who attend the school for special, state-funded English-intensive classes. Ward said that practice probably would have to change next year because the district cannot spend state desegregation money to bus children to segregated Spanish language classes.

If those pupils are no longer bused to Oehl, then the need for bilingual classes dissipates.

Campbell said even though bilingual classes may be consolidated at other schools, she wants parents to keep their children in her special English immersion classes. In that program, children receive all instruction in English except for some outside tutoring time in Spanish.

“Even if we don’t have the full Spanish program, I still prefer that they stay with us,” Campbell said. “These are wonderful parents that care about their children, that care about education, and I don’t want to lose them. “



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