Estancia students protest Prop. 227

POLITICS: The anti-bilingual law is called racist and unfair

COSTA MESA – About 100 students walked out of their classes at Estancia High School on Friday morning to protest Prop. 227, the recently passed initiative that curtails bilingual education.

The students, mostly Hispanic, marched five miles from Estancia to Newport Harbor High School and back shouting, “no on 227,” which they consider discriminatory.

“It’s unfair what they’re trying to do with Prop. 227. It’s called racism,” said Noraya Romero, 15.

The students said it’s unrealistic to expect children to learn English in one year, as Prop. 227 mandates.

“They don’t want to teach us how to speak Spanish. That bothers me,” said Rigo Domingez, 15.

Fliers describing the march, beginning at 9 a.m., were distributed to students Friday morning at the two schools.

About 20 percent of the 22,000 Newport-Mesa Unified School District students have limited English-language skills.

Estancia High School has no bilingual program but provides English-language classes for students.

Linda Grant, a bilingual teacher at Newport Harbor High, said that none of the 130 students in the school’s English-as-a-Second Language program participated in the march.

Grant discussed Prop. 227 with her students.

“I just said one of the provisions was that kids were given 180 days to learn English, which everybody found pretty silly,” she said.

When they got wind of the march, district officials called police, who provided the students with an escort.

Students who participated could receive detention for missing class, said Tom Jacobson, assistant superintendent for secondary education.



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