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LOS ANGELES, February 5 -- A report this week by an elementary school principal that he
was assaulted by two men who said they didn't want a white administrator at a mostly Latino
school has exposed a raw nerve both at the campus and at the highest echelons of the district.
Norman Bernstein had become a subject of controversy at Burton Street Elementary School
in the San Fernando Valley. Racial and ethnic strains have been simmering at the campus for
nearly a year, where a vocal group of parents has complained about the administrator's
management style and inability to speak Spanish. Tensions eased somewhat Thursday as the
parents backed away from their campaign to oust Bernstein, 65, and top Los Angeles school
officials expressed support for the 40-year veteran of the school district. Police,
meanwhile, stepped up their investigation into the Monday morning incident in the school
parking lot, which is being handled as a hate crime. Investigators met for nearly an hour
with about 20 parents behind closed doors at the school to bring them up to date on the
probe. (Los Angeles Times)
LOS ANGELES, February 4 -- A Panorama City elementary school principal who said he was
beaten unconscious by anti-white assailants had asked the Anti-Defamation League last
month for help in dealing with discrimination he was experiencing at the school, a lawyer
for the league said Wednesday. The attack brought reactions from all corners Wednesday, as
Latino parents protested that they were not connected to it, even questioning Principal
Norman Bernstein's account, and others described racial tensions that apparently led to his
appeal to the league. Police have said they are investigating the attack as a hate crime,
perhaps motivated by discontent over Bernstein's efforts to scale back bilingual education at
the predominantly Latino campus. (Los Angeles Times)
LOS ANGELES, February 3 -- In what police called a hate crime, a Panorama City principal
was beaten unconscious by two men who told him they didn't want him on campus because he
is white, authorities said Tuesday. The attack at Burton Street Elementary School, which is
predominantly Latino, may have been related to growing discontent by Latino parents over
efforts to scale back bilingual education, police said. With an enrollment of 750 children,
Burton Street Elementary is 90% Latino. As at all schools in California, administrators are
replacing much bilingual instruction with the English immersion mandated by Proposition
227, passed by voters in June. Under the proposition's provisions, schools are required to
offer bilingual classes when at least 20 students in a given grade are granted waivers from
English-intensive classes. District records show that officials received more than 200
requests from parents at Burton to extend bilingual classes. (Los Angeles Times)
SACRAMENTO, February 2 -- Latino civil rights activists are urging state Assembly
Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) to rescind his appointment of anti-bilingual
education champion Ron Unz to a blue ribbon panel on government finance. Villaraigosa,
reaching out to a political opponent, recently named Unz and 27 others to an advisory panel
he created to examine ways to finance state and local government. Some in the Latino
community say the move has backfired. Although the activists agree with Villaraigosa, a
possible candidate for mayor of Los Angeles, on a broad array of issues, they revile Unz
because he successfully promoted Proposition 227, the anti-bilingual education initiative
approved by voters last year. "We should not reward those who attack and hurt our
community like Ron Unz," Marcos R. Contreras, state director of the League of United Latin
American Citizens, said in a letter sent last week to Villaraigosa. "We should avoid giving
[a] position of influence and authority to those who can do harm to our community,"
Contreras said. Representatives of several other groups offered similar views. (Los Angeles
Times)
LONG BEACH, Calif. February 2 -- The Long Beach Unified School District is officially
implementing its Proposition 227 programs today, but most of the fourth-graders in
Nathan Cuellar's class at Burcham Elementary probably won't notice. Nor will the second
graders in Kathleen Rapp's class, just across the schoolyard. That's because they will keep
the same teacher and the same classmates they've had all year. They will not be moved into a
class where all the students speak as much, or as little, English as they do. Nor will they be
placed in a class where they will once again speak Spanish most of the time. Sure, their
teachers are now speaking English most of the time, but it's been a gradual process, and
those instructors can still be counted on to speak Spanish when a student gets really
confused. And while there is a lot more reading in English, there are still Spanish textbooks
available for students to preview tricky concepts. But though these pupils may not be aware
of the changes Proposition 227 has brought into their lives, their teachers are. (Long Beach
Press Telegram)
