Latino student suspended for speaking Spanish

December 9, 2005 -- Hispanics have great pride in their culture and feel it's a privilege and an advantage to speak two languages fluently. While many people have to study and pay to learn a second language, Hispanics and other cultures have the beauty of learning their parents native language at home, at their convenience.

Zach Rubio, a 16-year-old student at Turner School District's Endeaver School in Kansas City, Kansas was suspended two-days, not for fighting, but for speaking his parents native language --Spanish.

Zach, who was born in the U.S., but speaks fluent Spanish and English got suspended from school because he was carrying a conversation with a classmate in the school hallways in Spanish and disobeyed the so-called school policy of "no Spanish speaking in my building."

"It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish; it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.' "

A teacher who overheard the two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts ordered him to call his father and leave the school.

'My son called me on Monday and said he had been suspended for speaking Spanish,' Rubio said. 'I could not believe it. I went to the school and spoke to Mrs. (Jennifer) Watts and asked her if this was school policy. She told me, 'no,' but said 'We are not in Mexico, we are not in Germany.''

Watts, whom students describe as a disciplinarian, said in a written "discipline referral" stated her decision to suspend Zach for 1 1/2 days, was because "we asked Zach and others to not speak Spanish at school."

Zach's father, Lorenzo Rubio, who is with reason furious about his son's suspension, wants to know if if Watts has singled out Vietnamese, or other groups that speak other languages. As far as he knows, Watts has only focused on his Spanish-speaking son, and the "other" Spanish-speaking students who Watts referred to in her discipline report.

"My son did not fight with anyone; he did not offend anyone," Rubio said. "Enough is enough. Watts is still there and she got her way when my son lost two days of school. My son worked hard to learn Spanish. How can she say she does not want him to speak Spanish? Some of the students are afraid and they take this abuse. She picked on the wrong Spanish-speaking family. She told me, 'in my building I do not allow Spanish.' This is a slap in the face to us."

"If they did this to my son, who knows his rights, then how many kids has she mistreated in this manner, who are afraid to stand up?" he asked.

The Rubio family has retained a lawyer, who says a civil rights lawsuit may be in the offing.