ABSTRACT

In October of 2003, a teacher at the East Valley Institute of Technology1 in Mesa, Arizona prohibited several cosmetology students from speaking Spanish in her classroom. When students and parents protested the teacher’s actions at a community meeting, school administrators defended their employee, arguing that the school’s official policy was consistent with the state’s “English immersion” mandate approved by Arizona voters. The administrators further claimed that the teacher was merely using effective classroom management skills, and therefore, acted in a manner consistent with “best practices” in teaching.2 In effect, the school maintained the professional integrity of the teacher, while casting doubt on the student’s conversations in Spanish which they automatically assumed not to be related to the lesson being taught. The school administrators further supported the teacher in stating that such conversations could have disrupted daily classroom functioning, and potentially caused the teacher to “lose control of the classroom.”3