When Injustice Happens.

Today I met with my ELL student M.  M is in my American history class with Ms. R.  M has been missing the last few times I have been to Ms. R’s class and I was wondering about where she has been?  Ms. R and I did some research and realized that M has been attending her first and second period classes and then skipping her fourth and fifth period clases.  My first reaction was to wonder why M was skipping class.  Today I planned on working on the Cold War worksheets that we have been reviewing in Ms. R’s class.  We have watched several videos and M has really missed a lot of work.

When I sat down today I realized immediately that something was going on with M.  I asked if she wanted to talk about what had happened and she said it would be good for her to share her experience with someone.  She told me a story about her families trip to HEB.  She told me about security guards grabbing her mother by the arm and telling her and her sister to shut up.  She told me about how she tried to be strong for her entire family since she was the one person who spoke the best English.  They took her family into the office at HEB and accussed her mother of stealing.  M said her mother did not take anything, but they threatened to call the police and they repeatedly told the girls to shut up.  They asked if the family had papers and when M said they did not; they said the police were going to come and deport them.  After two hours, and after M’s mother signed an omission of guilt they let the family leave and asked them never to return.  The police never came.

I would have a hard time concentrating on my school work too.  I imagine the powerlessness that M must have felt and the humiliation.  It makes me angry.  This semester at Akins I feel as if I have been exposed to a different world; a world were racial hatered and intolerance are still alive and well.  What is the first step in helping to solve these problems?  How can I help to change attitudes in the classroom?  How can I help students who fear that their family may be deported or students who go away from school and experience these type of injustices.

I listened to M today.  I cannot go back and change what has happened, but I can listen to her.  We began our reading lesson after we spent time talking about what heppened to her.  She did really well with her reading.  I helped her with words she did not understand and we discussed difficult Cold War concepts.  Ms. R says she can makeup the work she has missed.  Hopefully she will!

In reflection, students are going through so much outside the classroom.  The challenge for todays teachers is to provide the kind of safe learning environment where students can come and be free to study and learn without fear!