<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">There's a new post on the <a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage">Web of Language:</a><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre; ">Wichita's English-only school sued for discrimination</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10px; white-space: normal; "><a mce_href="view?blogId=25&topicId=1119&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286" href="https://webtools.uiuc.edu/toolbox/view?blogId=25&topicId=1119&count=1&ACTION=VIEW_TOPIC_DIALOGS&skinId=286">In the Fall of 2007,</a> St. Anne Catholic School in Wichita, Kansas, instituted an English-only policy for students: no language except English in class, in the halls, at lunch, or on the playground.<span> </span>Adam Silva, a sixth-grader whose native language is English, and who had attended St. Anne’s since kindergarten, refused to sign the required English-language loyalty oath because he wanted to speak Spanish sometimes too, so he was expelled (the school insists that Silva left voluntarily).<span> </span></span></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Now Silva, his parents, and three other students and their families, are suing St. Anne’s in federal court for discrimination.<span> </span>They seek an end to the foreign-language ban, along with Silva’s readmission, monetary damages, and court costs.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Supporting the students’ complaint against St. Anne’s are two letters that the school distributed about its English-only policy. <span> </span>The principal announced that her ban on foreign languages came in response to a few students bullying their classmates in Spanish, and using Spanish to talk disrespectfully about teachers and staff.<span> </span>But in an official letter to parents, English-only was re-framed as educational, not punitive: speaking only English on school grounds would strengthen students’ command of the language so that they could become more successful.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">Students were asked to read and sign a second letter distributed in class which links the English-only rule, not to academic achievement, but to discipline issues like proper behavior during lunch and recess.<span> </span>The last paragraph of this letter notes that the Bishop of Wichita has approved the English-only policy and concludes with a warning to students to speak English and nothing else, or “consequences will follow.”</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;">... read the rest, including an excerpt from the famous "Babel Proclamation" of 1918, on t<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">he <a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage">Web of Language</a></span></span></font></div><div><br></div><div>DB</div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Verdana" size="2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Lucida Grande'" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; white-space: pre;"><br></span></font><div apple-content-edited="true"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>____________________</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Dennis Baron</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Professor of English and Linguistics</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Department of English<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">University of Illinois<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">608 S. Wright St.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Urbana, IL 61801 </font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">office: 217-244-0568</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">fax: 217-333-4321</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 12px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></div></span><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron</font></span></a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3">read the Web of Language:</font></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#144FAE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage">www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage</a></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000EE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><br></span></font></div></span></div><div><div><br></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>