Ana Ligia Mateo says in a lawsuit she was hired in 2006 as a bilingual secretary at Devonshire Elementary, which has a high population of Spanish-speaking parents.
But two years later, Mateo says, a new principal announced a 'No Spanish' policy.
After the announcement, Spanish-speaking parents with questions would request Mateo to translate, but Mateo says the principal and other staff members told her that was not allowed.
Mateo says she still spoke Spanish. Once, Mateo alleges, staff members told her they thought she empathized with Hispanic parents because she "crossed the border just like them."
Mateo, a Charlotte resident and U.S. citizen, says her employment was "effectively terminated" shortly thereafter.
Click here to read the lawsuit.
Mateo says Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools violated her civil rights and seeks damages.
- Doug Miller
Saturday, February 6, 2010
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46 comments:
This will be an interesting story if it is allowed to run to conclusion. A study in California showed the spanish speaking students performed better on state tests when all spanish speaking tests, lessons, etc. were discontinued. The assumption one investigator wrote indicated this practice forced the students and parents to learn English (assimilate) and they had no crutch to fall back on.
Digg, did you read the lawsuit? Don't let the facts get in the way of your bigotry. An American citizen was prevented from speaking by a government official. I guess that is okay as long as there is some CIS-funded "study" to say discrimination is really for the good of those being discriminated against. Today's immigrants are acquiring English fluency faster than any group in history--and that includes Hispanic immigrants.
Did *you* even read the suit, per?
Basically, they told her to stop translating for those parents. She wasn't "prevented from speaking." She was (allegedly) told how to do her job.
Granted, in typical CMS fashion, that would have been counterproductive (what's the point of making the parents speak English if there is a translator available?), but for all we know at this point, she's a bitter ex-employee who's lying for $$$.
Will be interesting to see if she has any evidence beyond her own say-so.
She was not told to talk, but translating can be tricky. What if what she thought they meant wasn't what they wanted? She could have twisted and enhanced the translation This is why alot of corporate entities who need translators, bring their own. If she wanted to be an advocate for these parents, she should have quit her job and got the Hispanic Groups in Charlotte to hire her a such. She was being paid to be a secretary @ a school and yes, the principal, her boss, can tell her how to do her job, just like your boss can tell you how to do your job. If you don't listen to your boss, you get terminated as well. No basis for a law suit, only a waste of our money for lawyers, etc. How stupid.
hospital require their interpretors to be cerified.....
Hablo sólo un poco de español, but I wish I had the time become fluent.
Clearly the case has merit. The staff at Devonshire are small minded. No surprise there.
I'm not a lawyer but all I see is a poorly prepared document. If I'm a client and I find a typo on work you have done, you owe me an hour.
You can say it doesn't matter all you want but put your sloppy paper work in front of a judge and you already are down by 6 points.
charlotte show its true colors once gain!! A racist and backwoods city perpetrating to being a new progressive city. What a joke!!
What happend to our charming Southern city? My family moved here from Quebec when I was 12. My parents were bi-lingual. I knew no more than five words of English. But people went out of their way to help me. Even some tried to speak to me in French. Now, when people see Latinos, they show nastiness and resentment. And people get outraged when they speak in Spanish. Big Deal, I speak to my family in French. If it concerned another, then we would converse in English.
People have gotten too narrow minded and intolerant of others.
People are missing the point and the reason why this suit will not be upheld. In general, CMS bends over backwards to have Spanish translations of documents sent home to parents and other Spanish translations between home and school. A perfect example is the recent federal requirement to re-indentify Hispanics, Asians, and Multi-racial students. Two letters, English and Spanish, were offered to the schools to send home to enable this process. This is only one example of Spanish being used to help facilitate communication.
The issue here is that the principal, right or wrong, told the secretary not to talk in Spanish. Heaven only knows why she would want that as any understanding between school and parents would be better than none.
There seems to have been a lack of communication between the principal and Mateo about why the Spanish should not be spoken. It is not a matter of the Spanish vs. English but the demand by the principal to speak English and the insubordination by the secretary. Whether it's in English or Spanish, the boss (read principal) made the decision not to speak Spanish and it's the job of the staff to follow the decision of the principal, whether it's right or wrong.
Wether is right or wrong..? What ever happened to freedom of speech..? It's like if you go apply for an office job and then they have you mop floors..! Look at CMS school's website, if they really wanna just speak english, why do they have all these spanish translations on there..! Get real... Is a double bladed knife if you ask me.
As ussual , Politics at work once again..
It appears to me that we are missing many pieces of this story. We certainly are only hearing one side (and it's understandable why CMS cannot comment on the merits of a lawsuit). I'm afraid this story may be incredibly damaging to relationships between the school system and some Latino families. What if there is a legitimate reason why the principal did not want the secretary speaking to the parents? Is putting out a sensational news story worth it? I wish The Observer could have held off on publishing this story until all the facts for both sides were presented.
Perhaps a lot of you have not read the documents. It is clear that the EEOC found probable cause for discrimination during the investigation. There's no doubt that this incident may cause a lot of disturbances between our communities specially among Latin-American Citizens. Remember this person is not an illegal immigrant, Is an American Citizen with all rights awarded by the Constitution of the United States. If that wouldn't be the case, This Country would not have been the great country it is today.
"GOD BLESS AMERICA AND ITS FREEMON"
After reading the lawsuit, if the accounts were accurate, she was definitely discriminated against and received retaliation. In a system that provides English and Spanish documents to hand out to students because of our diverse population, why would you not want a secretary to effectively communicate with parents. As a teacher in CMS, I often see non-English speaking parents mistreated (i.e. given suspensions without contest, limited phone calls from teachers)...It also perturbs me when I see other minorities (and I am African American) who treat Latinos with the same disregard Blacks were treated and still are being treated. Wake up. We must embrace diversity, not run from it.
If you scroll all the way to the end of the complaint there is a letter from the Justice Department that states that they will not file suit but that Ms. Mateo is free to sue in civil court, which I assume is what is happening. It also says that the justice department has made no judgment on the merits of the case. In other words the federal government is declining to file suit against CMS in this case.
Everyone seems to be judging very quickly here. I still believe both sides of the case need to be heard.
I knew Devonshire's new principal had problems the first day of school when she told me to leave my 7-year-old son at the bus stop by himself and be ontime for work or I would lose my job. The secretary is NOT lying. All of the spanish speaking staff members were told not to speak spanish to the spanish parents. Not only that, but the principal then locked all doors to keep spanish parents out of the school (the media covered this story) and therefore locking some special education classes out since they were housed in trailers behind the school. But what can you expect from a principal who terminated several tutor and teaching positions, yet kept her best friend on the payroll as the "copy person."
If you need proof that this story is true, ask any Devonshire Elementary staff member who attended "the" staff meeting last year when Principal Gimenez said that no one was to speak spanish to the spanish parents. "If they can cuss you out in English, then they can speak to you in English," she said.
The federal goverment would take a case when it only interest its agenda, and also the Justice department don't take every case that knocks on their door even if is legit for the simple reason that there are courts for that very same purpose.
After reading the article, I felt compelled to write a comment. School should be a place where learning occurs. And, it should have a leader that geniunely cares about the students and the staff. Devonshire Elementary did not and does not have this. What it does have is a prinicipal that cares more about collecting a paycheck than whether students' learn or if she can assist her staff. She allows her AP to run around the school and torment teachers and students'. This behavior continued from the first day that Suzanne Gimenez stepped foot on Devonshire's campus. Mrs. Gimenez would never assist staff when students' would misbehave and/or have epidoses in the classrooms. She would walk by the classroom as if nothing was happening inside at all. What type of person is this? Mrs. Mateo, was a wonderful person. She was extremely helpful and she got yelled at constantly from Gimenez. Respect is due to everyone. It is not good to attempt to rule your employees with fear. This is the tactic that Gimenez and Kimberly Vaught likes to use to control their employees. Don't they understand that people will give you 110% is you treat them with respect? For those of you that think that this lawsuit is not valid, you couldn't possibly understand what she had to endure working in that front office.
I have no problem with listening to directives when they are coming from a sane individual. The Spanish population has a right to be acknowledged as well as heard when entering Devonshire Elementary. And, CMS needs to make that happen. They violated her rights and they need to pay for that!
This is incredible... this is a great example of the peculiarly southern type of "discrimination with a smile" that will keep the status quo in place. Has anyone ever heard of Horatio Alger and the American Dream? Apparently the current rate of about 58% 4 year Cohort Graduation rate is okay, and there is no need to engage parents! Principal freedom and flexibility sounds good, until you see something as stupid as this... undoubtedly she considered this school her little fiefdom, and as such, she had no accountability. Just think; this happened at the friendly helpful elementary school level. Just imagine how bad it is at a high school, where you get what you get, and helpfulness is something that is fiction. Counselors are hired at the rate of 400 students to one counselor; if you are not pregnant, shot or bleeding (alot), you are not a priority and neither is your schedule or academic needs. This type of closed minded service by public employees is an outrage to taxpayers, and must not be tolerated.
Why do we spend so much time dealing with issues such as "allowing spanish" or "not allowing spanish" to be spoken when conducting business in our institutions of learning.
In my opinion, that's a no brainer since we all know how important it is to be accurate and effect when communicating objectives, and in determinig what needs to be done, as well as a clear understanding as to how the business of educating our youth is to be accomplished.
A single common language is obviouly necessary if we are to successfully accomplish the education or children.
With ... 50 million ...Mexican ... illegal ...alien ... rejects ... mooching ... off ...American ... citizens ... putting ... countless ... medical ... facilities ... out ... of ... business... for ... years ... on ... the ...border ... knowing ... how ... to ...work ... the ... system ... and ... nation ... sinking ... into ... the bottomless ... abyss ... of debt ... who ... cares ... what... these ... freeloaders ... think ... or ... if ... they ... or ... their ... libscum ...pals ... are ...offended ... anyway? ... Go ... bark ... at ... the ... moon.
Have the Spanish language newspapers commented on this at all? This has been going on since 2008 and I doubt it has been a secret--so have Latino advocates been involved in this? If the answer to both of the above questions is no, then I have to wonder why not? Do they have additional knowledge of this situation? Are we missing a few facts?
I see that this story has now gone national. I hope that the Observer story is accurate and complete, since apparently it is being picked up nationwide.
Gimenez?, you know that's a Spanish last name. It sounds to me like this high oh mighty principal has something against her own people. Perhaps CMS should take a look into her own background. And you close minded, racist haters out there get used to it because we are here to stay!!! Spanish and all.
I see from Observer archives (in an article written by Ann Helms) that Ms. Gimenez spent fourteen years at Nations Ford, which has a large Hispanic population. She was moved as part of strategic staffing--in other words was a successful principal being moved to a school that needed help. Did Hispanic parents have issues with her at Nations Ford? Ann, could you give us a little more information about this principal, please? Is it fair for her to be pilloried without any background information?
One other thing--I see on the state report cards that the first year Ms. Gimenez was principal there (2008-2009) test scores went up pretty dramatically, especially in math (Hispanics at 78.7% passing, which is above the overall district average.)
Why is Mexico so eager to unload these illegals?
Didnt Castro dump all his criminals rejects off on Carter in 1979 who took them with "open arms" and then found out he was the butt of the joke? He spent mos rounding them up but only located about half.
Cant blame CMS for demanding English so it wont become a trend and fan out. This isnt Spanish class. Nip it in the bud and Mestizo racists who dont like it can take a hike.
It is amazing that people will believe anything and everything they read, just because someone says it and it gets printed. Hello…just because it is written doesn't make it true. No one has heard both sides of the story. I could go to the press now and tell them a story about my boss, have it printed, and then have my boss bashed by a bunch of one-sided bloggers. All because I just feel like it. Just because an employee states something occurred doesn't make it true...come on people!!! Perhaps Ms. Gimenez wanted to be able to do HER job by being able to understand conversations between staff and parents. If a parent is in the school office upset and the secretary is talking to the parent in Spanish, wouldn't you think the principal would want to know what is going on. How can she do her job if she can't understand what is going on and what is being said. And Amen to the blogger who did their research before commenting on Ms. Gimenez. In one year, she increased scores at that school...isn't learning what school is all about. Not to mention all the years she spent at Nations Ford with a large Hispanic population. Bottom line, the principal is doing her job and the secretary is looking for $$$$. You don’t have to like your boss people, but if you want to be successful and keep your job, you have to do what is asked of you, or suffer the consequences.
And to all the other staffers at that school who want to complain about Ms. Gimenez and spread more lies, go work somewhere else if you don’t like her!!! You should be thankful to have a job. Unlike you, Ms. Gimenez was sent to that school because of her successful track record and because she could do what it takes to get the kids LEARNING!!!! Which she has proven!!!
The ignorance in some of these comments is out of this world. One, just because someone speaks Spanish they are not automatically an illegal alien. I have friends here who are on totally legal PR status, working to learn what they need to survive as an American citizen. My sister married into a Latino family who have been in this country as US citizens longer than my (white European) family has. Two, you anti-immigration reactionaries need to take a minute to remember that a century ago or 150 years YOUR FAMILY were probably immigrants and they were probably getting crapped on by "nativists" (which in itself is funny because NONE OF US are natives here) for being Irish or German or whatever. And I'm sure they didn't just land speaking English, they probably relied on others who came before them and could translate, to help. Seriously, doesn't anyone have to take history classes anymore?
opps, sorry I didn't realize I was having a conversation with any body. I must have hit a nerve....
Question: Is Ms. Gimenez a principal at a local school or is she a prison warden?
You just can't prohibit your employees or anyone for that matter to speak their own languge in this country or any other country. Well, maybe in communist countries. People need to communicate and if they can't do it in English then they must do it in their own languge German, French, Chineese, Spanish what ever. If the secretary found it necessary to speak to some of the parents in spanish so what?!!! what is the big deal? this has nothiong to do with the students not learning english. Not veryone has the ability to pick up another language specially older foulks."If" the allegations are thrue, who the heck does Ms. Gimenez think she is? She can't just make up her own rules she works for the government!!! This is a public school!!!
Note: Mestizo does not mean racist.
"You just can't prohibit your employees or anyone for that matter to speak their own languge in this country or any other country."
Their own language is ENGLISH if they live in the United States.
Mrs. Gimenez, is not Spanish. She's married to an Hispanic. Secondly, I worked under her. Therefore, I definitely know this to be absolutely true. As far as the test scores going up in math, I question that. My reasoning is this. I have walked in and have seened them correcting EOG documents. It was enough for me to say, "HUH?" What about you? I know what the students' were capable of and to have a tremendous jump like that is almost unheard of! Gimenez & her people that she brought with her were determined to make her look good. And, they were going to ensure that she came out smelling like roses, no matter what they had to do! The Formative Assessments should be looked at and compared to see if this type of turnaround was even possible. The students were doing horrible on the assessments. Their reading and math scores were not good at all. Smells extremely fishy to me. Getting back to Mrs. Mateo, I will reiterate, she's telling the truth. If the readers and/or the press don't believe her, just try asking the staff that work there.
Regardless of the language issue, has the story of the child abuse at the school been investigated?
If there was ever a tie to set aside a rule of not speaking spanish, this was it.
If it were an everday situation of explaining a class schedule or something minor, fine.
ut was this child abused? Or will that be swept under the carpet as CMS circles the wagons?
This is clearly a case of racism and anti-latino sentiment. A 7 year old child was raped and the secretary was told not to translate for the parent, but was told that the 7 year old rape victim could try and translate for his mother. I'm sorry, but all of you who are showing your rabid racism really need to get in touch with your humanity.
The allegation of fixing test scores has some history in Chicago. Read Freakinomics; they detail how several teachers were busted fixing scores of low performing students to make their school look good. That's why tests are taken with a #2 pencil; so teachers can correct scores.
Perhaps CMS should be investigated by an outside group to see if they cheat.
But ultimately, this issue stems from a rape allegation and that should be the primary focus, not language.
I prefered it when i was in the navy. On a u.s. base no matter your nationality you have to speak english. God bless america. Either be part of us or get out. I love my country i can't stand people that want to be here but have no love for this country. So many people enjoy the freedoms and liberties but no one is willing to fight. Let alone speak the language and try to be apart of something greater than themself. I personally can't stand half of you people, you all make me sick to my stomach and if it wasn't for my kids i would really resent the time i spent fighting for this country. This is the United States of America. And we are all about freedom. There just has to be some accountability with the people. Every one complains but no one is willing to do what is needed for change. Need to reenstate the draft or make a law that if you do not serve in military or go to college you will be stuck with a public service job.
anon. 11:49:
The plaintiff is a US citizen.
Read before you type.
I wonder What he means..!!! ""Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools encourages bilingual employees to translate for parents who don’t speak English, Superintendent Peter Gorman said""
Where you've been Peter>>!!!
Two years too late if you ask me.
Also , I wonder if there's any e-mail communications that would prove otherwise.
Duh Gorman hard at work.
I guess if you want your voice to be noticed, " Take it to the courts" But fear not Mr. Gorman, The tax payers will pay up the bill for you. Thanks alot ..!!
I guess the UNhuman resource department at CMS wasn't doing a very good job after all. Maybe it is best if they fired ms. Gimenes, it will be costing NC residents a lot more money every time she opens her mouth. that goes for the assistant principal too.
Again our kids have to pay the price for a bunch of idiots running CMS.
I don't care wether you're black , white,latino, china wherever tha ***k you're from, a lot of kids and parents are discriminated at CMS every day, " specially blacks and latinos " I hear those stories very often and I know for a fact that that ****ing **tch of Gimenes is ****ing racist. Yet , Knowing CMS and their dirty politics, they probably will be there for while no doubt. and ofcourse, we'll pick up tab..!!!
Does anyone else see a complete disconnect with the Observer reporters / editorial board and 2 recent CMS stories?
1st: this one about the secretary being let go for translating.
Nowhere does the Observer dig into the child abuse allegation or even hint at its importance. That should have been priority number one! Instead, the Observer instructs Ann Doss Helms to run a cover story of how Gorman & CMS do no wrong.
2nd: The equity panel complaining about the disparity in AP classes offered to certain schools. Once again, the Observer editorial board misses the thrust of the issue: which is that many students, at schools where far fewer AP classes are offered, are either unmotivated or unprepared to take them. The amount of AP classes offered is by the demand for them.
But somehow, the Observer editorial goes after "disparity in equity" as an all-encompassing problem when it should have focused on the issue of student competency. Of course, any child who completes AP classes is the better for it. Does the Observer think by having 21 AP classes offered at Waddell that suddenly the school will turn around?
The editorial should have focused on getting help for the kids that qualify through their grades and help those who need huge improvements with basics.
What about the child abused..? isn't that important.? Please Charlotte Observer, dig into it.
You cretinous, moronic, jingoistic, nativist dung-buckets, I am writing because I have just learned about the case of Ana Ligia Mateo, a secretary in your district who was fired for speaking Spanish to the Spanish-speaking parents of students at her school. On what planet do you drooling, feculent trogs live?
Our communities are diverse and our public schools ought to serve all students and all parents. Refusing to communicate with parents simply because they speak Spanish does a disservice to all students and couldn’t possibly help your educational goals, unless they included isolating, alienating, and disenfranchising people who, despite their differences, are membersw of your community and deserve your respect.
Education is too important to exclude and alienate significant numbers of students and parents, or to be left in such hands as yours, particularly if you are going to persist in such insulting, belittling behaviors without acknowledging your errors..
I therefore DEMAND your district to immediately and publically renounce all English-only rules in your schools, re-hire Ms. Mateo, and issue a public apology to the parents and the students whom your discriminatory and arguably racist acts apparently intentionally affronted.
Ana Ligia Mateo is suing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, in North Carolina, for being fired from her job at Devonshire Elementary when a new principal forbad her from speaking Spanish to parents who can't speak English. According to the lawsuit, Suzanne Gimenez took over as principal in 2008 and "announced in a staff meeting that she would no longer allow Spanish to be spoken to parents by any of the faculty or staff."
You know, cause educators have a responsibility to be dicks to the parents of their students.
Someone needs to tell principals that their job is to teach the kids, not the parents.
But I digress.
10,700 of the 133,700 students at the school come from homes where English is a second language, and nearly 21,000 kids in the district are Latino.
Excerpt from the Charlotte Observer:
"During September 2008, a Spanish-speaking parent came to the school crying and stating in Spanish that someone at the school had placed a stick in her seven-year-old son's buttocks," the suit says. "(Mateo) asked Ms. Gimenez if she could translate for the parent. Ms. Gimenez refused and told the parent her seven-year-old son could translate. The parent continued to cry and eventually left without having her issue resolved because she could not understand Ms. Gimenez's responses."
The suit says after an encounter with another distraught parent who could not communicate, Gimenez "screamed at (Mateo) that she could not speak Spanish to any parents."
Mateo was sent to a conference room, the suit says, where Assistant Principal Kimberly Vaught told Mateo she knew Mateo could empathize with the parents because she "crossed the border just like them." Mateo, who is described in the suit as a U.S. citizen who is "Hispanic/Nicaraguan," said that was not true.
Oh, how nice of the Assistant Principal to understand Mateo’s empathy. You know cause she jumped the border just like all the other Mexicans in the school.
This is where all this “we’re just trying to help these students speak English” thing come from. It comes from ignorant a$$ racists.
Some idiot kid, stuck a stick up this kid’s @$$. The parent, distraught, didn’t get to learn English before she went to the school for help. At the school a b!tch @$$ principal there thought it was more important to humiliate and frustrate the parent and the child than to figure out what the problem was. And because Mateo wanted to figure out the problem instead of being a complete b!tch, Mateo was yelled at.
When she tried to help another Spanish speaking parent was also troubled and couldn’t learn English before showing up to the school for help, she was fired.
Now, I know teaching English to students is a good thing. It’s the language of business in this nation and the world. So I understand, rules being set up to insure the children are emerged in an environment where they are forced to learn English.
But the parents are not the students. If the parents don’t know English, don’t worry, they aren’t going far in this country. You win all you nativist @$$holes.
The parents are coming to the school because there is a problem with the child, and if you give a rat’s @$$ about the students, you could at least let the bilingual secretary in your office to be a translator.
Is being a b!tch and an @$$hole part of your job description?
How do you like my English? I come from a home where English is a second language too. And I didn’t stop at English. I also know French and Arabic.
How many languages do you know, you ignorant @$$, punk @$$, racist @$$ b!tch.
Thank you
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