STOP CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS COMITTED BY THE LAUSD AGAINST SEMILLAS DEL PUEBLO COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

COMMUNITY CALLS FOR THE RENEWAL OF THE CHARTER OF ANAHUACALMECAC PREPARATORY

Los Angeles, CA - 5.13.13

Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School of North American ("Anahuacalmecac") and her sister school Xinaxcalmecac, collectively known as Semillas Community Schools ("Semillas"), are the only two comprehensive public schools in the City of Los Angeles that serve the intellectual and cultural needs of Indigenous children. Anahuacalmecac has already succeeded in graduating culturally grounded, college-ready, multilingual young leaders for our communities. Based upon multiple measures of success, Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory merits renewal by the authorizing Local Educational Agency. Not only has Anahuacalmecac surpassed multiple legally established measures for renewal by meeting and exceeding all standards-based exam growth targets in the last academic year, but the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) itself acknowledges that Anahuacalmecac's school performance on standards-based exams surpasses comparable residential schools our students would have otherwise have been forced to attend. Anahuacalmecac's first graduating class of students not only completed all A-G requirements, but over 80% of graduates have successfully enrolled in four year and two year post-secondary educational institutions. All students speak more than one language fluently, many have developed fluency in a maternal Indigenous language as well.

As Americans concern themselves with the education of children for the 21st century, we commit ourselves to the cultivation of young adults into new Americans conscious of global and local responsibilities and rights as Indigenous People. The experience, theories, practices and initiative Semillas engages in are collectively named Tlamachilisxochiponajle - flowering knowledge. Tlamachilisxochiponajle is an autonomous educational initiative aimed at radically regenerating education in self-determined communities of Indigenous Peoples through more learner-centred, linguistically aware pedagogy focusing upon education which advances: 1) maternal language, 2) autocthonous culture, 3) autonomous education and 4) universal access for indigenous children to national and international educational institutions. As an Indigenous community-based organization and as a traditional society of Aztec Dancers, Semillas has become an active advocate of the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  Additionally, our students have participated and will continue to participate in international gatherings towards advancing the voice and vision of our youth invoking, promoting and advocating for the rights of all indigenous peoples while learning about their own responsibilities to Mother Earth, community, humanity and all of our natural relations – including the upcoming 12^th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. 

CALL TO ACTION

CALL ON SUPERINTENDENT JOHN DEASY TO SUPPORT THE RENEWAL OF THE CHARTER OF ANAHUACALMECAC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY PREPARATORY HIGH!

Founded in response to indigenous parent demand in 2008, Anahuacalmecac is the only successful Indigenous charter high school in Los Angeles. LAUSD is on the verge of closing Anahuacalmecac due to a "papers please" policy against Mexican indigenous charter school petitioning parents and educators. LAUSD currently has a "policy" that requires charter petitioners to complete a "due diligence questionnaire" that: 1) requires petitioners' Social Security Numbers ("SSNs") as a condition of charter school renewal/approval; 2) releases LAUSD and its staff from any liability arising from the release of SSNs; and 3) waives any rights of individuals to insist that SSNs be kept confidential. This policy facially violates 5 U.S.C. section 552a, and moreover, LAUSD continues to apply the illegal policy in a selective, discriminatory way that violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Last year, LAUSD staff opposed Semillas' charter renewal petition in 2012 because Semillas' leaders, who are well-known to be of indigenous Mexican origin, exercised their right to not provide their SSNs to LAUSD for LAUSD to "investigate" them. Semillas' program is centered on indigenous values, language (Nahuatl) and culture of pre-contact Mexican peoples, and this is something that was plainly addressed and described in the charter petition presented to LAUSD staff for review and consideration. Semillas' leaders articulated that LAUSD's "papers please" demand reflected an actual and/or institutionalized racial bias against persons of Mexican origin in light of the well-documented abuses surrounding immigration and rights of families, with or without citizenship documentation, to attend and enjoy public schools within the District.

Semillas then immediately requested documentation from LAUSD to determine whether LAUSD had ever recommended other non-Mexican led charters for denial based on failure to submit SSNs. Based upon the information LAUSD provided, it appears that similar recommendations for denial had never occurred, even though non-Mexican charter petitioners frequently did not submit SSNs verifying their citizenship. For instance, just between April and October 2012, the LAUSD Board of Education considered 25 charter petitions, and none were recommended for denial based on a failure to provide SSNs. As late as October 2012, LAUSD's attorneys still promised to release information about the due diligence questionnaires and LAUSD's use of SSNs. However, to date, LAUSD continues to stonewall Semillas' attempts to obtain public records that will shed light on discriminatory use of SSNs at LAUSD.

Superintendent John Deasy can stop the perpetuation of anti-indigenous peoples policies and practices in LAUSD which directly impact the children, families and educators of Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory High School of North America to this day. After years of discrimination, harassment and outright malfeasance on the part of LAUSD entities and operatives against Semillas del Pueblo Schools, Anahuacalmecac and its sister school Xinaxcalmecac, LAUSD's misuse of Social Security Numbers is particularly harassing in light of the prevalent political rhetoric hostile to the rights of so-called "undocumented" persons of indigenous Mexican origin.

Beyond attempting to force fit all students in Los Angeles into the mainstream institution of schooling, LAUSD ought to embrace the alternative Anahuacalmecac presents as a bottom-up community based educational transformation responsive to local community needs, international community demands and 21st century imperatives. As an authorized International Baccalaureate World School, Anahuacalmecac reflects the best of international practices in continual professional development, collaborative curriculum development, and concept-driven, inquiry-based, student-centered, community-transformational educational practice. As such it is the LAUSD's, and indeed the State of California's MORAL OBLIGATION to renew the charter of Anahuacalmecac as a conscious step towards the full implementation of the internationally recognized Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We will no longer tolerate the substitution of assimilation for education, or monolingualism for international-mindedness, nor the degradation of the indigenous ancestral spirit alive in every native child at the predatory hands of state operatives after the control of knowledge, power and the dominion of our future.

STOP LAUSD HARASSMENT AGAINST SEMILLAS DEL PUEBLO NOW! DEMAND RESPECT FOR THE COMMUNITY PETITION TO RENEW THE CHARTER OF ANAHUACALMECAC THROUGH 2018, NOW!

LET DEASY AND THE LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION KNOW YOU SUPPORT THE PETITION FOR RENEWAL OF THE CHARTER OF ANAHUACALMECAC!

Go to: Sign our Online Petition Here

Go to: www.semillasdelpueblo.org  for updated information