Families accuse school officials of discrimination

Michael Miller

Five women -- family members of children at TeWinkle Middle School --

stood up at the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board meeting

Tuesday to complain about the way school employees treat Latino

children. The women, four of whom spoke through a translator, said

officials at the Costa Mesa school made ethnic slurs toward their

children and often gave them excessive detentions or suspensions. One

of the speakers, Mirna Burciaga, called the relationship between

parents and administrators intimidating and said she planned to file

a complaint with the federal Office for Civil Rights later this week.

“This is a case of discrimination,” said Burciaga, a former Costa

Mesa City Council candidate and a former Parks and Recreation

commissioner. “We have a good case. I have a lot of evidence, and

they should stop this.”

After hearing the remarks, Supt. Robert Barbot said there would be

an investigation into the matter.

“We will address the issue,” Barbot told the crowd. “Just give us

some time.”

Late Wednesday, Jaime Castellanos, the district’s assistant

superintendent of secondary education, said he had met with the

school’s principal, Dan Diehl, and assistant principal Tim Tolzda.

“It’s something we’re going to address quickly and immediately,

I’ll tell you that,” Castellanos said, though he declined to talk

specifically about the meeting.

Diehl declined to comment Wednesday.

Castellanos also said that in the past several months, two

TeWinkle parents came to him with complaints about the treatment of

their children. Those complaints did not specifically mention race as

an issue.

Burciaga and the four others, who are all Latina, spoke during the

public comment section of the Tuesday school board meeting before it

was adjourned because of a tsunami alert. Although the speakers noted

that more than one employee at the school had given them trouble,

they directed most of their criticism at Diehl, who is in his first

year at TeWinkle.

“Latino children are here to learn,” said parent Laura Escobar.

“The principal, and certain people at the school, believe that

Latinos cannot achieve.”

Another speaker, Ana Gallardo, claimed that the school had twice

suspended her daughter for reasons unclear to her, and that Diehl

often made insensitive comments to her child and others.

“We Hispanics are here to work, not to destroy, and when you’re

calling a child stupid, that’s not right,” Gallardo stated. “We’re

being humiliated at that school.”

While most of the speakers at Tuesday’s meeting made general

comments about the school environment, some described specific

incidents. Martina Calixto, the aunt of a TeWinkle student, said that

on one occasion her niece asked a teacher to help her locate a lost

purse and was told sarcastically to look in the trash for it.

Burciaga told the board members: “The atmosphere at TeWinkle is

very intimidating for parents, teachers and students.”

The current complaint is not the first time Burciaga has taken

action against the 1,100-student school, which has a large Latino

population. In 2000, she filed complaints with the Office for Civil

Rights and the state Department of Education accusing TeWinkle of

providing insufficient education for its English-learner students. An

investigation upheld Burciaga’s claims, and the Newport-Mesa district

signed a federal agreement in 2001 promising to improve its programs

or lose funding.

Castellanos said Burciaga’s first complaint “was probably a great

thing that happened to us.”

“Before that, we didn’t have a well-organized [English-language

development] program at all,” he said.

“Are we perfect? Not quite. But we’re getting there.”

In April, Burciaga led a petition drive among TeWinkle parents

when rumor spread that the school wasn’t planning to offer a contract

to assistant principal Tony Valenzuela, a beloved figure to many

Latino students and parents. The district disputed the claims in the

petition, saying that Valenzuela would be kept on the TeWinkle staff

next year with a different job title.

Castellanos said Wednesday that while he and Valenzuela have not

worked out a precise job description, Valenzuela will be back at the

school next year.

* MICHAEL MILLER covers education and may be reached at (714)

966-4617 or by e-mail at [email protected].