Prop. 187 Gets Personal in ‘Learning’

Creating citizens, in the broadest sense, has always been high on the list of tasks we expect schools to tackle. And that’s been especially true during times--such as now--when large numbers of immigrants have come to America in search of economic opportunity or political freedom.

That is why Proposition 187, the California ballot initiative approved by voters in 1994 to deny public education and health care to undocumented immigrants, hit public schools like an emotional bombshell. Though it is still tied up in court challenges, the very idea of recasting the usually supportive relationship between teachers and their students--turning teachers, in effect, into agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service--disrupted schools in neighborhoods serving large numbers of immigrant children.

A diary of that devastation can be seen in “Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary,” a documentary filmed in Los Angeles’ Pico-Union neighborhood that airs on PBS tonight.

*

Laura Angelica Simon, a fourth-grade teacher at Hoover, made the film prior to and just after the proposition’s passage, and she makes the public debate personal, examining its impact on the lives of her fellow teachers and the students they serve.

The result is a series of mini-dramas that each pack an emotional wallop.

There is Mayra, the chubby but charming vice president of the student council, who takes the camera inside the tiny apartment she shares with her family and her uncle. One can’t help but be moved by the pride she shows in a pair of sunglasses, in her neatly made bed, in the section of the closet where she hangs her clothes.

There is Diane Lee, the white teacher who does not speak Spanish, who supports 187. She worries that the sheer number of immigrants are overwhelming the school, making it less effective. She winds up resigning, feeling unwanted.

An activist parent at the school, a Latina, talks about how immigration has hurt the Pico-Union community, making it unsafe to walk the streets. Her revelation that she, too, voted for 187 causes a Latina teacher who worked closely with her on behalf of parents at the school to break into tears, feeling betrayed.

There are more such stories. Although Simon is clearly opposed to 187, the power of this film is in her portrayal of a range of opinions. And we can’t help but be moved by how the public policy debates affect the lives of teachers, parents and children alike.

* “Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary” airs on “P.O.V.” at 10 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.