28 April 2010

Bullying on the bus, the governor's race in Alabama, and Arizona immigration law. These have been tumbling around in my mind all week and I think I have finally been able to pull some thoughts together to say something lucid.

This thought process began on Sunday morning when I woke up early and turned on my DVR recording of SNL. It was a legendarily bad broadcast until Weekend Edition with Seth Meyers. He began by talking about the new Arizona law that required people to show their papers when asked. He riffed for a bit about how the main place you hear, "Show me your papers," is in WWII movies. I read a bit more about the law in some non-comedy news sources and came to the conclusion that the law seems a bit over the top to me. That said it is fair for people to debate what should be done about illegal immigration in our country.

Next I heard about Tim James and his advertisement to become governor of Alabama. He states that in Alabama they speak English so that they should only offer the state driver's license test in English. "If you want to live here, learn it. We're only giving that test in English if I'm governor."

Bringing it home to education and to Concord I have had conversations recently about bullying on school buses in Concord. School officials and bus officials are aware of the issues and are diligently working on all issues. The worry is that a racial/immigrant wrinkle is being added to bus bullying.

My concern is that the with the hot rhetoric that often happens in the news that this could spill over in a negative way to our students who are English language learners. Immigration is going to be coming up big in the news and the burgeoning ELL population in Concord could be an easy attack point for frustrated people. Many of these students have spent years in refugee camps only to finally find solace and comfort here in Concord. It would be terrible for them to again become victims.

I am confident that this will not become a major problem but the strength of the Concord School District is that we do an excellent job of preventing possible problems. I will be incredibly happy if this never becomes a problem. But I also want to make sure that we are aware of the possibility and that we work to keep all of our kids happy and safe.