Esmerelda County School District Agrees To Allow Students To Speak Spanish On Bus After ACLU Sends Letter

In October 2007, the Esmerelda County School Board approved a policy that prohibits speaking Spanish while riding the school bus. The ACLU received complaints from parents whose children were affected by this policy, and sent a letter to the School District Superintendent Robert Aumaugher asking him to immediately rescind the policy. Mr. Aumaugher agreed to make it clear that students are allowed to speak Spanish while they ride the school bus and sent a letter to parents - in both Spanish and English - explaining the district’s language policy.

“The school district understands that students have a constitutional right to free speech,” said Gary Peck, Executive Director of the ACLU of Nevada. “Once the superintendent was informed that prohibiting students from speaking Spanish violated their rights, the school district was very willing to work out a policy that both encourages students to practice their English skills and allows them to speak their native language.”

Esmeralda County School District’s revised policy states that “there is no general rule prohibiting Spanish on any of our buses.”

The prohibition on Spanish directly affected about a dozen high school students from a small farming and ranching community in Esmeralda who are bused by the Esmeralda County School District several miles – about an hour and a half each way – to Tonopah High School in neighboring Nye County.

The ACLU’s letter to the superintendent explained that by singling out and prohibiting the use of Spanish school district sends the message that Spanish-speakers, the majority of whom are Latino, are inferior. Because the language people choose to speak closely reflects their culture and where they are from, restricting the use of languages violates federal prohibitions against discrimination based on national origin.

On the evening leg of the bus ride that these students take back to Esmeralda County, there is an academic period for the first 45 minutes, during which the students are required to do homework, study, or read. The second 45-minute period of the evening ride is considered free time. During the academic period, the school district asks that all students practice their English skills. Students who are more proficient in English may speak Spanish while assisting those whose English is more limited. Students who are still developing their English skills will work with the tutor who rides with them.

Students may speak to each other in any language they choose during the morning leg of the bus ride as well as during the non-academic portion of the evening bus ride. When communicating with the bus driver and with tutors on the bus, the school district asks that students speak in English or that they ask another student to interpret if necessary because neither the bus driver nor the tutors speak Spanish.

“We are pleased that the school district recognizes that it’s possible to achieve its educational goals while embracing our nation’s growing diversity,” said Jennifer Chang, staff attorney with the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “The school district’s new rule welcomes Latino children into the school community; this benefits children of all backgrounds.”

The Esmeralda County School District letter to parents is online in both English and Spanish at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/gen/34172res20080212.html www.aclu.org/espanol/34175res20080212.html

The ACLU’s letter to the school district is online in both English and Spanish at: www.aclu.org/immigrants/discrim/33863res20080131.html www.aclu.org/espanol/33867res20080131.html

More information on the work of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project is available at: www.aclu.org/immigrants