Each day when I pick up the kids from their respective schools,
I ask them about their day. This is my little window into what is
going on in the classrooms and on the campus. Last week, all the
talk centered on what was happening outside the school; mostly the
kids leaving campus to protest.
Each day when I pick up the kids from their respective schools, I ask them about their day. This is my little window into what is going on in the classrooms and on the campus. Last week, all the talk centered on what was happening outside the school; mostly the kids leaving campus to protest. These discussions with my children don’t leave me any more certain of what the best solution is to the larger problem of illegal immigration. What is happening and being done specifically in Gilroy is a different matter altogether.
My middle school student had a substitute teacher one day last week. She immediately reported to me that the teacher that day was making racist remarks. I am paraphrasing here, but the gist of it was that this person has some neighbors who play Mexican music and cook Mexican food, and she opined to the students that those neighbors should just move back to Mexico.
This is not only ignorant and racist, but a little bit frightening to me. I cook a lot of food that isn’t “American.” The week of March 17, I was cooking Irish food and listening to Celtic music.
I hadn’t realized that this might cause anyone to believe that I am not a citizen, or that I should move to Ireland. I will not allow my daughter or son to sit in a classroom with this substitute again; I’ve instructed them to call me if she appears again this year.
My oldest daughter is at the high school. She told to me that more than half the students who left the campus were cutting out just to get out of class. This was confirmed by the large numbers who left campus while very few actually made it downtown to protest. When she commented to a friend how ridiculous this was, a Chicana student who overheard her told her that “you just don’t get it because you’re white.” Talk about your racist stereotyping! My daughter corrected her, informed the student that she was against the proposed immigration bill, and told her she shouldn’t make such broad assumptions about white people.
I can tell you how I felt when I watched the protests on the news. I felt deep empathy with the people who have come here to seek a better life for themselves and their families. Like the vast majority of American citizens, my ancestors made a similar decision.
I do feel a little disappointed that so few people who have risked life and limb to get to America were showing any allegiance to this country. I don’t understand how someone can proudly wave the flag of the country they escaped and do not want to be forced to return to. It seems to fly in the face of what they are trying to accomplish; becoming American citizens.
The immigration bill proposed bothered me most because it would prohibit churches and social service agencies from serving the people who rely on them most. It is the churches and non-profits that are providing a safety net for many poor working families in Gilroy.
I deplore this type of government interference with those who are doing God’s work.
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On a completely unrelated school note, I am providing a public information message to the parents of students in Gilroy Unified. Today I attempted to deliver pizza and soda to my daughter and her friends at lunchtime as a treat for her birthday.
The kids were expecting the pizza, so none of her friends had brought lunch from home. Many students at GHS do not buy lunch or bring lunch to school, so there’s a lot of food sharing going on every day.
I was informed that I was not allowed to provide lunch from outside to any student other than my own. Ironic, because I believe that the kids who are getting lunch every day at GHS through the free and reduced lunch program are being provided that lunch courtesy of me and other taxpayers.
There are 2,400-plus students at Gilroy High School and all students have the same lunch period. By their own account, the food services people admit that they cannot serve all the students in the allotted lunch period.
I cannot see how bringing in food once or twice a year for a small group of students who never use the food services of Gilroy High anyway is considered “competing” with the contracted food service.
Especially confusing is the fact that my daughter was told that she could keep the two pizzas and the soda in the office until school let out, at which time she and her hungry group of friends could finally eat. Cold pizza and warm soda – count me in!
