U.S. Investigates Bias Charges in Newhall Schools

The federal Department of Education is investigating allegations that the Newhall Elementary School District discriminates against Latino students and segregates them from their Anglo schoolmates.

The investigation, by the department’s Office for Civil Rights in San Francisco, is in response to a complaint filed by a group of Latino parents and community leaders, according to the office’s regional director, John Palomino.

It is the latest development in a more than 3-year-old feud pitting school administrators against the Latino leaders, who maintain that Spanish-speaking students placed in bilingual classes are not receiving educations equal to those of their Anglo classmates, an allegation school administrators emphatically deny.

The district, which serves kindergarten through sixth grade and comprises five schools, has 3,034 students, 425 of them--14%--Latino. Most of the Latino students, 295, attend Newhall Elementary School, making up 44% of its enrollment.

Points of Controversy

The controversy has included accusations that a principal was prejudiced and mistreated Latino students, many arguments between parents and administrators, the filing of a lawsuit against the district by a teacher’s aide who sided with the Latino group and two state Department of Education investigations into charges lodged by Latinos against the district.

Federal investigators are looking specifically into possible violation of federal civil rights laws by the district, Palomino said. For example, he said, they will examine a contention of the Latino group that Spanish-speaking students are inappropriately placed in federally funded special education and migrant education classes.

The law prohibits recipients of federal education funds from discriminating against program participants on the basis of race, color, national origin or handicap.

“I’m absolutely convinced the allegations have no substance,” district Supt. J. Michael McGrath said.

Palomino said, however, that investigators are sent into a school district only if his office decides there may be merit to discrimination allegations.

Investigation Not Automatic

“We don’t automatically investigate every complaint,” he said. “Most can be solved with a phone call or two.”

The fact that the latest state investigation recently found the district in compliance with state education laws has no bearing on the federal action, Palomino said.

“We don’t normally defer to a state,” he said.

Also under investigation in the Newhall district, Palomino said, are allegations that Spanish-speaking students are being promoted without receiving the instruction appropriate for their grade levels and that Spanish-speaking children are segregated from other pupils.

Leaders of the Latino group complain in general that the Newhall district is not preparing Latino children, many of whom are from Mexico, to live and work in an English-speaking society.

“A number of community residents feel the district is not being successful in educating their children,” said William Smith, an attorney for the San Fernando Valley Neighborhood Legal Services. Smith filed the federal complaint on behalf of activist Barbara Fernandez of Valencia and others.

‘Constantly Talking Spanish’

Fernandez, whose son is scheduled to enter kindergarten this fall, said teachers in bilingual education classes “are constantly talking in Spanish. They don’t teach English.”

District administrators do not listen to Latino parents who “want their children taught in English,” she said.

In the summer of 1983, she said, she and four other women held English classes for Spanish-speaking children in the backyard of someone’s home to provide instruction not being offered in school.

“The children are not being taught properly,” Fernandez said. “Sometimes, aides are used as teachers. They just sit there and let these kids have fun. All the Latino children are lumped together. The parents want more Anglo children in the classroom. We want two-thirds Anglo to one-third Latino.”

McGrath said Spanish-speaking students who begin learning in their native language in kindergarten are usually able to make the transition into English instruction by the third grade.

“It’s simply not true,” he said of the allegation that the school district does not teach the children English. “We’re extremely proud of our instructional programs.”

2 Days in District

Federal investigators spent two days this month in the district interviewing students, teachers and parents, and now are examining student records and test scores, Palomino said. The district and the complainants will be notified of the findings from 90 to 100 days after the investigation is completed, he said.

If violations are found, Palomino said, federal education authorities will start procedures--including setting standards and timetables for compliance--to ensure that the district takes corrective actions.

“We just want it all to be over,” McGrath said. “We think we’re being harassed. We’ve spent three years fighting this.”

The controversy started in 1983, he said, when some members of the Latino community accused Lawrence Heath, then principal of Newhall Elementary School, of excessively disciplining Latino students.

Soon after, Sarah Dulmage, a Latina and a former bilingual teacher’s aide under Heath, filed a lawsuit against the district seeking $1 million for emotional distress. The lawsuit is still pending.

Heath was transferred last September to Meadows School, but administrators said the move was routine and not related to the lawsuit or pressure from Latino parents.

‘An Excellent Principal’

“He’s an excellent principal,” McGrath said.

Last year, consultants from the state Department of Education, who investigated complaints from the Latino community, concluded that the district had violated several provisions of the state education law pertaining to bilingual education. However, a second team of state investigators exonerated the district last month, commending district administrators for their efforts in bilingual education.

“We are totally and absolutely in compliance with the law,” McGrath said.

He said Latino students are concentrated in one school, Newhall Elementary, because their families live in a small barrio within the school’s attendance boundaries.

Of the Latino students there, 156 are in bilingual classes, he said. There are only 27 Latino students in bilingual classes at the district’s four other schools.

Futile Effort

McGrath said the school board has tried unsuccessfully to distribute Latino students more evenly.

For example, he said, in 1984, the board tightened its intra-district transfer policy in an attempt to curb what some called “white flight” from Newhall Elementary School. Many Anglo parents who did not want their children taught in a bilingual classroom were transferring them to other schools in the district, McGrath said.

An attempt by the board last year to redraw attendance boundaries so that some Latino students would attend other district schools drew opposition from Latino parents who did not want their children bused, he said.