TUSD School Walkout final draft

John Chestnut

Dr. Brown

English 305

September 29, 2016

TUSD School Walkout

              What is an effective protest? Is it violence? Is it making as much noise as possible until you get noticed? Can something as simple as walking out of school be an effective form of protest? The answer depends on who does it and also when. In January of 2012, the Tucson Unified School District decided to completely cut out ethnic and Mexican American studies. This cut came to a district where 60% of all students were Mexican American. (Biggers) The students were left with only one thing to do and that was protest.

              The students would end up staging two different protest. Both would be peaceful. The first coming in April of 2011 when a group of nine students would take over a school board meeting by staging a sit in. Each student had a chain and would chain themselves to a chair to show how they felt emotionally about the cutting of the ethnic studies. (Herreras) The news would only one show one student being loud and banging on the desk next to the chair he was sitting in. This protest gave the issue its first nation exposure and showed that the students were not fighting for a class but for their culture and what they believed in.

The second protest would come in January of 2012 when the students of the TUSD districts decided to walkout of schools during class time. (Biggers) An unprecedented move that would lead to some students getting suspended, but also send a message that their voices will not be silenced. The students walked as one big group, some with their families, all the way down to the TUSD downtown offices. The reason was still about their Mexican American studies with the only reason being given was that money would be withheld from the district if the classes were not cut.
              The students used ethos throughout both of the protest, but even more so in the walkout. By appealing to the ethics of the situation, the district could not avoid any student who had taken part in the walkout or sit in. It’s still befuddling to think that the district could cut away the classes and the only reason given was because John Huppenthal, the superintended of public instruction at the time, threatened to withhold millions of dollars from the TUSD district if they did not comply and eliminate the classes. (Biggers) The students appealed the wrong doing and brought light to, what some would call, an extremist measure.

The students also called upon one another and played off of each other’s emotions during the walkout. They walked together as one group with one common goal, herein lying the pathos of the situation. The walkout had made the nation become more aware of the unjust structure of the new cuts in the academic system. Stars such as Eva Longoria chimed in on the situation calling the ban on classes more tragic than SB1070. (Planas) Movie stars and the general populace began to take note and shed light upon the situation as the movement gained traction.

Logic infers students and academic scholars in general be subject to equivalent measures of study. In suppressing fields of study and growth, that underlying sense of logic is defied. Furthermore, combined efforts in large groups under shared mentalities have historically proven to be effective and powerful means of communication and declaration. These ongoing issues and counterproductive decisions are especially detrimental when considering the ethnicity of most students attending in the district. (Biggers) These puzzling and repressive actions beg simple reason of both the students and anyone working toward exposing the matter, a clear example of logos’ important place in the movement and its wake.

The protest movement lives on in the decision that was made in a 2015 supreme court case that brought ethnic studies back into schools. (Diaz) It showed that maybe the cut of Mexican American studies was a racially fueled one and also a wrong one. The coverage that the walkout gained from not only local, but also national news outlets showed that this was a very effective and successful protest. And while the debate may differ slightly in terms of context, look to today’s political conflict as highly illustrative evidence toward the stance of racism and ethnic inequality being alive and well in this country. Without affirming a political stance of my own, it’s not difficult to recognize the outcry of citizens and leaders given certain candidate’s views. And it is movements like here in Tucson that help to strengthen backlash and a rejection of bias and inequality.

              It is my personal belief that studying other cultures as well as your own is always a positive experience and one that anyone no matter what race or what ethnicity you are can always benefit from. I knew people who participated in the walkout and each person was doing it not just for them but also for their own future generations. It is something that could be somewhat related to Brown vs The Board of Education. A case that featured its own walkouts for racial segregation in schools. If the cutting of Mexican American studies had stayed, then who knows what could have followed in its wake. This protest and the ruling pass down in 2015 bringing the classes back showed that sometime out constitution needs a bit of reboot that makes us remember those older cases. This whole ideal has shown us that not only is a peaceful protest effective, it can cause a positive change for our culture. The TUSD school walkouts show that people will not stand for any unjustness, especially if it pertains to the study and further development of one’s background no matter what race they are.

Work Cited

Skylar, Blake. Tucson bans Mexican-American studies, students walk out. 26 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.

Huicochea, Alexis. Students in walkout suspended. Arizona Daily Star, 2 July 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.

Biggers, Jeff. “Tucson School Walk Outs Grow: Protest School District’s Folly and Mexican American Studies Banishment.” Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 23 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.

Diaz, Tony. “Arizona Gets Schooled: Update on Ban of Mexican American Studies #MayaVsAZ.” Huffington Post. The Huffington Post, 11 Aug. 2015. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.

Herreras, Mari. A broken community. Tucson Weekly, 18 July 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2016.