Petaluman teaching tolerance as Trump era begins

Many Petaluma Latino students are fearful as Trump takes office.|

With talk of building a wall on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, threats to deport millions of undocumented residents and the attendant disparaging campaign rhetoric, the impending inauguration of Donald Trump has many people in Sonoma County on edge, including young Latinos concerned with the fates of friends and family.

In an attempt to allay fears and maintain civil discourse, Casa Grande High School administrators and instructors have worked to get ahead of any problems by creating an open discussion among staff, faculty, students and their parents.

At the forefront of the effort is longtime Casa social studies and English Language Development (ELD) instructor Tom Griffin.

Griffin grew up in Petaluma, has been teaching for 26 years at Casa and has been involved in the ELD program since its inception. He attended St. Vincent De Paul schools until he left for UC Santa Cruz.

In the ensuing years, he lived in Alaska, Maine and Arizona, but eventually returned due to family concerns.

“When my daughter was 10, 11 or 12 years old, I decided that having her around family was important,” Griffin said.

After earning his teaching credential at Sonoma State University, he began his teaching career as a substitute until he was hired at Casa. He received an award in 2014 for SSU’s Outstanding Alumni and Mentors as “a tireless advocate for English learners,” among other accolades.

Griffin said that when he began at Casa there was no program for English learners, and not even an awareness of a necessity for it. But changing demographics and increasing awareness in the school’s staff led to the creation of the program.

“I went to where the need was obvious,” Griffin said. “I can read some Spanish and know a lot of vocabulary. Kids will say the best teachers are not fluent, because if you speak it, sometimes when you get frustrated it’s easier to just translate.”

According to the California Department of Education for the 2015-16 school year, of Casa’s 1,683 students, 38 percent were Latino/Hispanic, 10 percent were English language learners and 40 percent were considered socio-economically disadvantaged.

Given the numbers, it seemed natural for widespread concern on campus.

“Are students and parents worried about increased scrutiny or harassment? Absolutely,” Griffin said. “In part this is simply due to the rhetoric, the talk of rapists and drug dealers, that seems to go unchallenged.”

Concerned by a report from the Southern Poverty Law Center about a rise in hate speech on campuses across the country during the campaign, Casa Grande Principal Eric Backman and his staff have had multiple meetings about what they might expect and how to handle it.

“Our approach has been both positive and proactive,” Backman said. “We didn’t want to be in a position where staff and instructors were caught off guard.”

Additionally, the seeming acceptance of violence, or the threat of violence, seems to be more palatable, he added, as well as “the heightened sensitivity to scrutiny that seems to characterize every significant minority group.”

“This is hard for those of us firmly within the majority to understand,” Griffin said. “But it’s my experience that every Latino in this society carries a secret fear of doing something wrong, and getting into trouble.”

To address and allay fears, Griffin has met repeatedly with parents and had ongoing conversations with students, who dealt with a difficult presidential campaign and then a letdown for many students, particularly girls who supported Hillary Clinton.

One technique Griffin used was to start a conversation about the limitations of presidential power and limits on the new president’s ability to fulfill some of his more divisive campaign promises. Another was a discussion in his Advanced Placement Macroeconomics class about how California’s economy is highly dependent on undocumented workers, who contribute and estimated $130 billion to the state’s GDP according to a recent University of Southern California study.

But most student concerns revolved around potential losses of friends and family.

“One fear is that families will be broken up,” Griffin said. “The feeling is not ‘I will be deported,’ it’s more, ‘I’m worried about my mom and dad or uncle or cousin’s family.’”

On Friday, when Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, protests are planned throughout the country on inauguration day and in the days that follow.

After the election last November, dozens of Casa students joined a walkout in protest of the results. Staff at the high school is prepared for whatever may take place on inauguration day, Backman said.

“The walkout after the election, the campus kept calm and kids on both sides conducted themselves with respect for all points of view,” Backman said. “We’ll see what the inauguration brings, with the women’s marches coming across the country. Our first priority is the safety and well being of all students. The Petaluma community has a lot to be proud of with the students and teachers.”

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