[LEGAL STUFF] Legality of speaking English only in a public school

no, because then we'd have to hire white people to be janitors.

 

I had a problem like this at one of my jobs a few years ago. It was at a bank and several of the tellers were hispanic including myself. We found it most comfortable to talk in spanish amongst us during slow periods in the day. Well, our branch manager didn't like it and she demanded that we put an end to it. I reported her to HR not knowing if she had the right to do that or not. Nothing ever happened though.

I would like to think this kind of behavior is borderline discrimination, right?

 

a manger tellin u to cut yo jibber-jabber?

 

I don't know if its a law but I have no problem with it if it is. The official language in this country is English, and as such it should be the only language spoken in public schools.

 

The United States does not have an 'official' language.

 

No, a manager telling me I'm not allowed to speak Spanish.

 

'during slow periods in the day'......sounds like he kno wen u guyz were f'ing off....

 

G Zus Kryst doesn't speak English, why is he posting in here anyway?

 

I don't know why a Principal would want to not allow people to speak their native language at work.

At our school some of the families don't speak English and speaking the native language of the family is the only to communicate about how their children are doing, and what ways they can help their children learn.

I also don't know why you wouldn't good examples of bilingual speakers to be set for the students.

 

English should be the only language spoken. It is the language of the civilized and you and everyone should be grateful you have the ability to speak it. Clearly it is impossible to maintain any sort of intellect if not in english.

 

California tried to pass laws a while ago, all were overturned. It is illegal to demand students to only speak English in classes, but if there are no teachers to teach a child in another language... You're SOL.

 

Swoly, Principals are pretty much the kings of their domains. They can establish their own rules, they are in charge on that campus. Yes, they are responsible and answerable to the school board, but school boards always give an incredible amount of leeway to the principals. It is like this in every district.

Now the fact is, if someone questions a principal about some rule he or she has put in place, the principal only needs to respond with some kind of an answer or explanation, and that would be the end of it - as long as the answer is not something like 'Well, I just don't like Mexicans'.

The principal is the employer, and generally does the hiring and firing on the campus, and whatever rules they want to put in place, the employees at that campus are going to have to follow them or freely choose to find work elsewhere.

Now that does not mean that I think all principals are always right - far from it. Just that the principal can do pretty much whatever he or she wants, as long as it breaks no laws or does not violate specific district policy. And obviously this is one area in which there IS not specific district policy (and probably never will be, because either way it would cause a conflict).

I would suggest asking the principal what the reason is for the rule. There may be a good explanation. Perhaps the principal is trying to create an environment where students feel a stronger desire to learn English and not fall back on speaking Spanish all the time - kind of depends on the school, certain campuses are far higher percentage Spanish-speaking than others.

The costs associated with duplicating an entire education system in another language other than English are enormous, and principals and administrators are always under incredible pressure to cut costs wherever they can. And one of the ways they may choose to do that is to create more of an English-only environment, and the principal may view it as a cost savings as well as helping to usher Spanish-speaking students into more seriously learning English.

 

I think English should be spoken in all classes in public schools, especially Spanish classes. Spanish brought down my GPA by a few points

 

Troll

 

No dialect specification.

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I think its nice, everyone having to speak the same language. I used to know these Indian kids in highschool who only talked amongst themselves in hindi and that separated them from the rest of the school.

And I have been in situations where people start talking their own language in front of me instead of english and i just never wanted to hang out with them again. I don't see what so bad about everyone having to speak english in professional or school settings.