PLACENTIA / YORBA LINDA : Activist Presses for Chicano Curriculum

A debate over whether Esperanza High School students can start a chapter of MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan) has attracted the attention of the community activist who helped organize a demonstration last September demanding more Chicano studies at several other Orange County high schools and a community college.

Seferino Garcia threatened similar action here if Chicano history and culture is not included in the curriculum.

Chicano students “will continue to walk out until we have our history included in the curriculum,” Garcia told the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District Board of Trustees Tuesday night. “Our history, language and culture has to be brought into your district.”

At the same time, Garcia presented a list of 14 demands to the board, saying “we will demonstrate every Sept. 16 (Mexican Independence Day) until our demands are met.”

Last Sept. 16, students from Sonora High School in the Fullerton Union High School District and Anaheim High School in the Anaheim Union High School District walked out of classes to demand more Chicano studies. The students were met by others from Fullerton College as they marched through the streets, eventually ending up in front of the college.

Police officers used pepper spray on the 300 students to disband the protest, saying the students were blocking traffic. Six protesters, including two 17-year-olds, were arrested.

Included in Garcia’s demands Tuesday were the hiring of more bilingual teachers and more teachers with majors or minors in Chicano studies.

Assistant Supt. Tim Van Eck, who oversees hiring for the district, said the district already actively recruits Latino teachers who are bilingual.

“It is important to have teachers and staff who can understand the variety of cultures in our district,” Van Eck said. “We compete aggressively against other districts for those teachers.”

Van Eck said 47 of the district’s 874 teachers have been certified as bilingual in Spanish and English. Twelve administrators--principals, vice-principals and counselors--are bilingual and several others are Latino, Van Eck said.

Supt. James O. Fleming characterized Garcia’s comments as “threatening remarks from someone outside my district. I am not going to have people threaten me or my district.”

Garcia said he addressed the board at the request of many students from Esperanza High School who were disappointed when told district guidelines forbid establishing a MEChA chapter at the school.

However, Fleming said most of the students who initially asked for MEChA last month have been satisfied with a compromise worked out by Esperanza Principal George Allen. He encouraged the students to join the school’s International Club and incorporate many of MEChA’s goals into the club’s actitivies.

District policy allows only organizations directly related to the curriculum.