Trustee Criticized for Immigration Remarks : Oxnard: Audience members argue with Jack T. Fowler over speech he made about the country’s need for a ‘dominant culture.’

A speech advocating the country’s need to maintain a “dominant culture” by an Oxnard elementary school trustee triggered a heated argument with members of a largely Latino audience at a school board meeting Wednesday night--with one resident comparing the trustee to Adolf Hitler.

Trustee Jack T. Fowler and three Oxnard residents exchanged nasty remarks for nearly 45 minutes after the residents asked the Oxnard School District board to oppose Proposition 187, which, if passed, would deny most government services including education to undocumented immigrants.

After other members of the school board expressed their opposition to the ballot measure, Fowler said he wanted to speak in support of it.

“I strongly support Proposition 187,” he said. “People entering this country illegally in small groups does not hurt. But the flood of people we have had in the last two decades has caused a lot of trouble. . . .

“Any political entity such as a country or state, has to have a dominant culture. If we don’t, we will have one culture vying to dominate the other,” Fowler said during a 20-minute speech. “It’s foolish to believe in the concept of multiculturalism.”

Nina Duarte, 40, who moved from Mexico to Oxnard with her parents when she 9 years old, called Fowler racist.

“Your opinions, Mr. Fowler, are reminiscent of those held by Hitler,” Duarte said. “What is it that makes you or your race superior to me or my race?”

At one point during the heated confrontation, Fowler said the audience had misunderstood him and for more than four minutes he fiercely repeated, “Back away from the lie lady, back away from the lie lady. . . ,” as a resident spoke.

In the end, the board voted 4 to 1 to oppose Proposition 187, with Fowler casting the one vote in favor.

The board’s debate came a week after El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, a nonprofit Latino rights group, asked the district to oppose the initiative. If passed, Proposition 187, which will be on the November ballot, would not allow illegal immigrants, including children, to attend public schools.

Although the number of illegal immigrants who attend classes in the Oxnard School District is unknown, about 80% of the district’s 13,000-student enrollment is Latino. Of that group, 47% speak English as a second language, district figures show.

Trustee Mary Barreto, a Latina, said she walked out of the meeting while Fowler spoke because she was outraged by his lack of respect for humankind.

“If Mr. Fowler continues to feel the way he does, I don’t think he should have anything to do with our children,” Barreto said in an interview Thursday. “He should leave (the board) because he is in the wrong place.”

Other board members said they found Fowler’s behavior out of line. They said that he damaged the district’s reputation by the way he expressed his views.

“I feel bad that Mr. Fowler lost control,” said trustee Susan Alvarez. “What he said had nothing to do with education and he was speaking for himself, not for the board or the district’s administration.”

Board President James Suter said he was criticized for not stopping Fowler during Fowler’s attack on illegal immigrants, but Suter said that trustees, unlike residents who only have three minutes to speak to the board, can talk for as long as they want.

Defending himself in an interview on Thursday, Fowler said he is not against immigration, but he opposes it when it is out of control.

“Immigration from any part of the world in controlled amounts enriches our culture,” Fowler said. “But the flow of illegal immigrants that we have had in the last decade is violent and sudden, and it’s causing extreme disruption to the fabric of our society.”

Fowler said he does not like to see children suffer--particularly when their parents are at fault. But where immigration is concerned, the law has to apply to everyone, he said.

“I don’t think anybody is comfortable in throwing a child out of school,” Fowler said. “But the law cannot be selective. (Proposition 187) will make a statement that a free ride in education or any other social services no longer exist.”

In an interview Thursday, Duarte said she and her husband removed three of their children from the Oxnard School District last year and enrolled them in private school because of people like Fowler.

“It’s criminal for him to be representing schoolchildren, particularly in Oxnard where most people are Latinos,” Duarte said. “He is in the wrong country, he is in the wrong city and he is in the wrong decade. The United States is a country of immigrants and no one can change that.”