ANAHEIM : Students Upset Over School Denial of Club

A group of Esperanza High School students are angry about the school’s refusal to allow them to form a chapter of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan), a student organization that focuses on Chicano culture and history.

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District officials say allowing the organization would violate its closed-forum policy, which permits only those clubs that are directly related to the curriculum. The district adopted the policy in October, 1989.

But Lupe Lopez, president of Golden West College’s MEChA chapter, who is advising the Esperanza students, said the fact that the school doesn’t include Latino history and culture in its curriculum should not be used against the students.

“Chicano history isn’t taught in the high school,” Lopez said. “If it were, MEChA would” qualify as being directly related to the curriculum.

District trustees were addressed Tuesday night by Lopez and Esperanza senior Grace Lopez, who is not related.

“It isn’t just Hispanic students” who want MEChA, Grace Lopez said. “Other students want to know what Aztecs and Esperanza are all about.”

The school’s athletic teams are named for the Aztecs, the native Mexican civilization that flourished in the 15th Century.

Sharon McHolland, the district’s assistant superintendent for instructional services, said MEChA is not considered curriculum-based even though the district’s social science and language classes include aspects of Latino history and culture.

“Our curriculum (in those classes) embraces all cultures,” McHolland said. “MEChA would be based on just a narrow part of that curriculum.”

But teachers from several other county high schools say MEChA, which emphasizes community service, can be considered curriculum-based.

“Any time students (in a club) are doing good in the community, that club can be tied to the curriculum,” said Frank Thompson, a history teacher and MEChA adviser at La Habra High School in the Fullerton Joint Union High School District.

Javier Rivera, an industrial arts teacher and MEChA adviser at Katella High School in the Anaheim Union High School District, said MEChA is curriculum-based at least as much as football, cheerleading or other athletic programs.

“We stress higher education,” Rivera said. “We encourage students to get through high school, then pursue at least a bachelor’s degree.”

Even if the club isn’t considered curriculum-based, both advisers said, MEChA does benefit students academically.

“Every student benefits from associating with other students in the same special interest areas,” Thompson said. “Students who feel good about themselves perform better.”

Esperanza student Eddie De La Torre said MEChA would help keep students in school by giving them something to identify with outside of class.

“It would give more of a reason to go to school,” he said. “Like some football players only go to school so they can play. That’s their reason for staying in school. Well, MEChA (would be) my reason.”