BURBANK : Interpreters Assist in Student Hearings

The Burbank school district this month has begun using professional interpreters for student expulsion hearings as a preventive step against the county overturning such decisions.

“Our staff people have done a good job, but they are not professional translators,” said Burbank Unified School District Supt. Arthur Pierce. The Los Angeles County Board of Education hears appeals on expulsion rulings and has overturned decisions in other districts because of the absence of a state-certified interpreter, Pierce said.

In early December, the district hired Paragon Language Services of Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles at a rate of $60 to $80 an hour and a minimum of three hours. The first hearing using the service on Dec. 7 was the case of a middle school student caught with a knife on campus. He speaks English, but his parents do not.

Multilingual Burbank school district employees have been used for translations during hearings, but that was a flawed system because the person would often paraphrase rather than give an exact translation, Pierce said.

By using the state-certified interpreter, a woman who translated for the parents and the school board simultaneously, the difference was dramatic, Pierce said.

“You get a better sense of the nuances of the situation being discussed at that moment,” Pierce said. “The parents were also hearing exactly what we said as they said it.”

The efficiency of the interpreter also helped resolve the confrontation, and instead of expelling the student, the board decided to assign him to an alternative education program run by the Los Angeles County Office of Education, Pierce said.