December 7, 2005

Kansas City boy suspended from school for speaking Spanish during recess

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Zach Rubio, a student at Turner School District’s Endeavor School in Kansas City, Kansas, was recently suspended for two days because he spoke Spanish during recess, which, among other things, is not against school policy. Despite Zach’s not breaking any rules, however, the principal, Jennifer Watts, explained: “We are not in Mexico, we are not in Germany.”

Where are we, Ms. Watts? Oh…I almost forgot, we’re in Kansas, where the schools are dedicated to teaching nonsense, and the line separating church and state gets thinner every day. Why not go ahead and prohibit students from speaking their native languages?

In fairness to the Kansas school system, Zach was allowed to return to school once news of the suspension reached Superintendent of Schools Bobby Allen. His father is waiting for an official apology, but isn’t likely to get it. Principal Watts will not talk with the local newspaper. Feel free to drop her a line and see if she’ll talk with you. Just don’t email her in Spanish.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

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So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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