While Tucson Unified School District employees sit inside the Tucson Convention Center arena tomorrow for the Back to School Assembly on Tuesday, July 31, supporters of the dismantled Mexican-American studies program are expected to make a lot of noise outside at a press conference and rally beginning at 8:30 a.m.
The rally that morning, and a B-Side Players concert at the Rialto Theatre in the evening, mark the end to Freedom Summer — a summer-long pro-MAS project that brought students, teachers, activists and artists to Tucson from California, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Texas to canvas, organize education, cultural and community events, and fund-raise for a teacher-defense fund.
According to Ernesto Mireles, a main organizer and Chicano studies adjunct professor at the University of Michigan, Freedom Summer volunteers knocked on more than 1,000 doors canvassing south-side and west-side neighborhoods this summer, alongside other Tucson volunteers and students from UNIDOS. The canvassing and education weekends are expected to continue into the fall.
The TUSD Back to School Assembly is an employee-only event where district staff hear presentations from other staff on the new school year. The assembly starts at 9:30 a.m.
From the UNIDOS/Freedom Summer press release:
We, UNIDOS, Tucson Freedom Summer and our allies from across the United States gather today at TUSD’s “Back to School Assembly” to deliver a message to Tucson Unified School District’s board and the world.
Our resilient community has persevered through this struggle in defense of human rights. Once again we are here to assert our right to culture, history, identity, language and education. This struggle is about the affirmation of our humanity and your responsibility to represent the majority of students in TUSD as well the minority. We invite you to finally and truly embrace your responsibility to represent the majority of this community. You have that voice. You have that privilege.
The moment of reconciliation is here. As a board your allies are diminishing, while the past two months have demonstrated the expansive nature of our movement. History is on our side, regardless of whether you choose to act now or wait until you are forced by the courts to restore MAS we will be vindicated — can you say the same?
We have seen small steps toward coming together by putting out messages for remediation. We have been ready all along to work with you —together we can do this. In recent conversations with individual board members Tucson Freedom Summer and UNIDOS have called on board members and Superintendent John Pedicone to rethink their position; it’s irrational that board member Ph.D.’s will go down in US history as individuals who have eliminated ethnic studies programs and banned books. They will be written in the history books as individuals that promote ignorance – the banning of knowledge and history.
Let this be our effort to initiate a dialogue with TUSD to move forward with our futures in mind. How do you want to be remembered?
Tucson Freedom Summer (a project of Save Ethnic Studies) is a national convergence of activist, artists and organizers who in addition to a month of cultural and educational events are currently launching a citywide informational canvass and survey about the state of education in Tucson. Information about events and volunteering activities can be found at Tucsonfreedomsummer.com and on Facebook at Tucson Freedom Summer 2012.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2012.
I think they should start teaching Zinn’s “A People’s History of the United States” to all High School students as part of the US History requirement. Then students would be taught that everyone but the WASP-Americans have been getting the shaft and only the non-white (really white) ones still are.
Seriously? YOU people are still trying to throw your “racist agenda” in everyones faces? Its time to “grow up” and realize you aint in Mexico anymore. American History is what you need to learn starting with the FACT that you are supposed to be Americans. If you want to learn about “other history” , read a book, ask your parents about their past and what they know, and finally do something other than PROTEST and waste OUR time, YOUR time and resources. WE are sick of your antics…and yes I am mexican american, with an emphasis on AMERICAN.
There was never a book ban. Geez, if these people can’t grasp the concept of a book ban so they know when there is and when there isn’t one, how will they ever grasp algebra? Discouraging.
Thanks Mari for promoting these radicals. As Raul Grijalva says, “truth to power,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.
I believe “assembly” is misspelled in headline. Can you correct and remove this post? Thanks Mari.
Yeah Skeptic, they only boxed up the books and forbade their inclusion in class curriculum…in what universe is that not a ban?
I am not opposed to ethnic study group elective classes any more than religious or chess clubs, but I am opposed to teaching individuals to hate this Nation (Hitler mentality). We don’t go to school to learn about another nation, we go to school to learn about the Nation we live in and what we need to become viable citizens of this Nation. Many students travel abroad to learn about other Nations. Anyone who wants to learn more about their heritage can travel as an exchange student to whatever Nation they choose. Stop and see that just like the original sin in the garden when Eve took that apple, ate and gave it to Adam who foolishly did the same, we are repeating history. Someone told the Hispanics, who came to AMERICA for a better life that they “can’t have” ethnic studies or whatever the agenda would be. The same with the Gay community, abortion rights, etc. All you have to tell someone is that they “can’t have” or “can’t do” and you can bet that they will receive organizers and funding to promote an agenda. AND REMEMBER, not all Hispanic people feel the same. The ones that I have met that do, have been FED THE WRONG INFORMATION. What concerns me is this is promoting an agenda to destroy the nation rather than build it. I guess we all need to come to the conclusion: ARE WE OR ARE WE NOT ONE NATION UNDER GOD? Or, are we a nation of many different preferences and agendas that want to turn on each other not for the common good but for the individual group and war it out until we destroy the very thing we aspired to be a part of. This is no different than the Arab Nation stating they will sit in the White House…We are a Nation rich in heritage and are who we are because of where we came from. The point we are missing is where we are going. AND more importantly, who will benefit from these controversies. If you dig deep, it won’t be the group that is being puppeted. This whole situation just like others is escalading into a “hate” controversy on both sides. Let’s ALL stop looking at the “brush fires” and see the TRUTH. Community organizers have been brought in for the sole purpose of the political agenda. Hispanics hold the greater number of Democratic votes and Democratic votes keep Washington moving in the same direction. the brush fires keep our eyes off the machinery. If it wasn’t for the political agenda there would be NO FUNDING and more unity as a State. The State stands to lose a lot of money if ethnic studies come back as they were. Arizona can then go bankrupt, more schools can close and the Hispanics as well as the rest of us will be at the mercy of Washington who then will own us. I PRAY tomorrows rally will be nothing more than a monsoon cloud void of rain. Unity as Americans is what we now need!
RJFletcher,
In the universe you and I live in, a book ban means denying possession of a book or access to a book in order to keep people from reading it. In TUSD’s case, students were not denied the right or opportunity to read or possess the books that helped get the school district in trouble. TUSD simply removed the books from the classroom where these books had been used to create distraction and controversy that benefited no one except a few activists looking to make names for themselves.
When students can go to the school library and check out a book, or purchase a copy from Amazon and presumably carry a copy around at school or even into the MAS class, there hasn’t been a book ban.
It’s my understanding that after the classes were canceled and that decision was upheld in court, the students remained in the classroom, doing what I don’t know. Hopefully using it at least as a study hall. Was there not some risk that some MAS faculty would continue to use the books hoping to become a martyr? (An overly dramatized sense of martyrdom seems to permeate the MAS crowd.)
My jab at the intellect of the book ban martyrs was only half-serious. I’ve long suspected the strategy behind the false claims of a book ban is the old “If you repeat a lie often enough…” But now I’m beginning to wonder.
RjFletcher…What does one do when books are no longer used in a classroom? They box them up. They deemed these books inappropriate for the curriculum within the classroom only. These books are still within the library, you can buy these books anywhere and can read them to your hearts content. This does not make a book ban. A book ban is when there isn’t any access to the book. A book ban would make it illegal to have the said banned book in ones possession, and the book will not be in any library, or would not be able to be purchased anywhere.
So, if a bunch of “adults” come storming into the first grade classroom and with no explanation box up and remove “Cat in the Hat”, “Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian”, “The Big Snow” and a few others…
And off-line tell the public that they can still check them out from the library or BUY them at a book store…
And some yahoos post on an internet comment board that they can still check them out from the library or BUY them at a book store…
What lesson did that classroom of students learn?
What the cowards in TUSD did to those classrooms full of students is a good working definition of a “Banning” in my book. And the cowards on TUSD who ordered it done should be REMOVED from the Board and Superintendent’s office…
Of course, adults just stormed into the classroom? You forgot to mention that they stormed into the classroom in full tactical gear, ripping these books out of the students hands. If adults came in during class to box up books instead of doing it after school hours, you can bet it was the idea of Adelita Grijalva in order to cause outrage in order to support her racist classroom teachings which was TUSD’s MAS.
“We don’t go to school to learn about another nation, we go to school to learn about the Nation we live in and what we need to become viable citizens of this Nation. Many students travel abroad to learn about other Nations. Anyone who wants to learn more about their heritage can travel as an exchange student to whatever Nation they choose. Stop and see that just like the original sin in the garden when Eve took that apple, ate and gave it to Adam who foolishly did the same, we are repeating history.”
I see where you are going with this I AM and AMERICAN, and although you pepper your words with seemingly accommodating statements, the heart of your message is the same thing we’ve heard from others with the typical “America…love it or leave it” mentality. I want to make this as clear as as possible:
We were/are a nation of people from many backgrounds, seeking freedom from oppression…that was the whole basis for the formation of our union, including freedom of religion, and the right to assemble, among many others. Whether it is required to be under “ONE GOD” is also a debatable point, but that is not what this is about…it’s the right for us to explore our cultures, belief systems, and our collective pasts within our communities.
To deny the exploration of multiple cultures within the schools, including that of American origins, is tantamount to censorship, which is unacceptable. You then tell us “go study about your heritage in another nation as an exchange student”, which sounds reasonable, yet insulting at the same time. If I want to know how and why my ancestors came to be American citizens, perhaps I should go to Europe or the British Isles, and not bother anyone here in America with my questioning mind? Your comparison of MAS to “Hitler mentality” is like comparing the migrant workers’ movement to the rise of the Third Reich.
Hyperbole aside, your suggesting we are being duped, as Adam was by Eve (a decidedly misogynist idealism) for sharing the apple of knowledge, committing the “original sin”, thus dooming us to “repeat history” is just over-the-top. How do these things become about religious dogma, when the original problem still exists: do we or don’t we have the right to study, believe, assemble, and question our governments and institutions? These rights are what make us a great nation… not without growing pains, but great nonetheless.
You obviously do believe in these rights (for yourself), so please don’t try to lay a guilt trip on those who of us who, as Americans, choose to exercise those same freedoms the way we see fit.
“When students can go to the school library and check out a book, or purchase a copy from Amazon and presumably carry a copy around at school or even into the MAS class, there hasn’t been a book ban.”
I see….and if they cancelled all flights out of the country but you could still walk, drive or sail out of it you’d likely claim there wasn’t a travel ban, too. It’s like saying all the libraries and bookstores that refused to carry Catcher In The Rye and/or numerous other books over the years didn’t ban them because you could still get copies through the mail. Utter nonsense.
Obviously some people have difficulty accepting the Mexican American citizen as having a part in our nation’s History. If it happened in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, all of which are U. S. states and it involved brown people, its still American History. The only difference is one is white, and the other is brown history. But unfortunately in the state of Arizona, some of us still believe, one is far more superior than the other.
Too even insinuate that Hispanic people in Arizona, wished the state was returned back to Mexico. Why it’s as absurd as the liberals, and minority’s across the country accusing us of tryng to re-establish the rule of the Third Reich in our state