Liz: I didn't keep the article but if you Google using the phrase: "Student Suspended for Speaking Spanish" you will find lots of references to the incident including the article from the Washington Post.
Best,
Rick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ellis, Liz" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 12:26 pm
Subject: Re: Student Suspended for Speaking Spanish in School

> The link Rick provided (below) won't work, when I go to MSNBC and 
> searchfor the article, I get more links that don't work.  Does 
> anyone have
> this article that they could forward to me? Do you think MSNBC 
> took the
> article down for some reason? 
> 
> I am very interested in this article for reasons that you might find
> interesting.  Since the students in public schools in my region are
> predominantly Hispanic (65-75%), Spanish is heard at school almost as
> frequently as English.  Although my children don't speak Spanish (much
> to my regret), their conversation is scattered with Spanish words -
> and
> they don't even know the words are in Spanish.
> 
> On a "standardized test" (on which kids in our district always do very
> poorly) one of the questions asked the kids to create a word from the
> letters "aotc"  - most kids here (including mine) wrote "taco" for the
> answer - and got it wrong.  The "right" answer was, of course, "coat".
> Most kids here don't even own a coat - sweatshirts are all they 
> usuallyneed.  I use this example in my own classes of how cultural 
> bias creeps
> into standardized tests.  
> 
> I very much remember my first experience with Spanish language in 
> school- I started first grade at La Mesa Elementary, which is in a 
> littlevillage between Las Cruces and El Paso.  I was the ONLY non-
> hispanicstudent at the school - and the only student who could 
> speak English in
> first grade.  And I distinctly remember the cruelty imposed on the 
> otherstudents by the "No Spanish allowed" rule.  Thank goodness, 
> in New
> Mexico at least, we have moved beyond such archaic and barbaric
> practices and have learned to celebrate the different cultures and
> languages that our students bring to school.
> 
> Liz
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> Lizbeth G. Ellis
> Department Head
> Department of Finance
> College of Business
> New Mexico State University
> P.O. Box 30001, MSC 3FIN
> Las Cruces, NM  88005
> 
> 505-646-3201 (phone)
> 505-646-2820 (fax)
> [log in to unmask] 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2005 8:03 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Student Suspended for Speaking Spanish in School
> 
> One of my students sent this to me and I decided to share it with 
> thoseof you interested in interesting controversies.  Has anyone 
> experiencedproblems with your students speaking languages other 
> than English in
> class?
> 
> Rick
> 
> Spanish at school translates to suspension: Controversy caused by 
> KansasCity incident reflects national debate
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10372148/
>