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<span><h1 class="gmail-article-hdr">In Boston's Dual-Language High School, One Teacher Grapples With Changing Tide Of Immigration<span class="gmail-article-audio-duration">03:30</span><div class="gmail-article-audio-opts"><a href="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/BUR1479210158.mp3" class="gmail-article-audio-dl" title="Download the audio" tabindex="0"></a><span><a class="gmail-audio-embed gmail-modal--toggle" title="Embed on your website"></a><div id="embed-player-modal" class="gmail-modal gmail-modal--toggle"></div></span></div></h1></span><span><h1 class="gmail-article-hdr"><span><h3></h3><p><textarea id="embed-player-code"><iframe width="100%" height="124" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://player.wbur.org/edify/2018/05/28/muniz-academy-teacher-refugee-el-salvador"></iframe></textarea></p></span></h1></span><span><header class="gmail-article-section--title gmail-article-section--island gmail-article-section--has-audio"><div class="gmail-article-action"><a class="gmail-card-action gmail-playable" style="text-decoration:none" title="Play" tabindex="0"><i class="gmail-icon-play gmail-icon-play--article gmail-icon-play--paused"><span class="gmail-icon-play-shape"><span class="gmail-icon-label">Play</span></span></i></a></div><div class="gmail-article-meta"><div class="gmail-article-meta-group"><span class="gmail-article-meta-item gmail-article-meta-item--date"><span title="Monday, May 28th 2018, 9:21:29 am">May 28, 2018</span></span></div><div class="gmail-article-meta-group"><ul class="gmail-article-meta-item--authorlist"><li class="gmail-article-meta-item gmail-article-meta-item--author"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/inside/staff/willie-gomez" class="gmail-article-meta-link gmail-article-meta-item--author">Willie Gomez</a></li></ul></div><div class="gmail-article-share"><div class="gmail-article-share-icons"><a href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwbur.fm%2F2IUbal9&text=In%20Boston's%20Dual-Language%20High%20School%2C%20One%20Teacher%20Grapples%20With%20Changing%20Tide%20Of%20Immigration&via=wburedify" class="gmail-article-share-link"></a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/dialog/share?app_id=134067973330252&display=page&href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wbur.org%2Fedify%2F2018%2F05%2F28%2Fmuniz-academy-teacher-refugee-el-salvador&redirect_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wbur.org%2Fedify%2F2018%2F05%2F28%2Fmuniz-academy-teacher-refugee-el-salvador" class="gmail-article-share-link"></a><a href="mailto:?body=In%20Boston's%20Dual-Language%20High%20School%2C%20One%20Teacher%20Grapples%20With%20Changing%20Tide%20Of%20Immigration%0D%0Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.wbur.org%2Fedify%2F2018%2F05%2F28%2Fmuniz-academy-teacher-refugee-el-salvador&subject=wbur.org: In%20Boston's%20Dual-Language%20High%20School%2C%20One%20Teacher%20Grapples%20With%20Changing%20Tide%20Of%20Immigration" class="gmail-article-share-link"></a></div></div></div></header><span><section class="gmail-article-section--content gmail-hang-punctuation gmail-article-section--first gmail-article-section--centered"><p class="gmail-"><em>This
piece was produced by Willie Gomez, who was an Edify intern this
spring. He is a graduating senior at Boston's Margarita Muñiz Academy,
where Kelly Gil Franco was his teacher and debate coach.</em></p><p class="gmail-">Teacher Kelly Gil Franco says all of her students are “amazing.” But she admits there’s one 16-year-old girl who stands out.</p><p class="gmail-indent-medium">“[She]
was a child refugee, who actually had to cross the border,” Gil Franco
says. The girl -- whom Gil Franco declines to name, protecting her
anonymity — is an honors student, with a part-time job, who’s "willing
to try her best every day."</p><div class="gmail-inset-align"><div class="gmail-recirc-inset"><div class="gmail-recirc-inset-head"><h4>More from WBUR</h4></div><div class="gmail-recirc-inset-inner"><div class="gmail-recirc-inset-stories"><article class="gmail-card gmail-card--stream gmail-card--stream--sm"><div class="gmail-card-inner"><div class="gmail-card-text"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify/2018/05/25/higher-education-money-problems" class="gmail-card-link"><h1 class="gmail-card-hdr">In The Wake Of Mount Ida Closure, Legislature Considers More Control Over Higher Ed</h1></a><div class="gmail-card-meta"><a class="gmail-card-action gmail-playable" title="Play" tabindex="0" style="text-decoration:none"><i class="gmail-icon-play gmail-icon-play--sm gmail-icon-play--paused"><span class="gmail-icon-play-shape"><span class="gmail-icon-label">Play</span></span></i></a><div class="gmail-card-meta-inner"><h3 class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-source"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify" class="gmail-card-source-link">Edify</a></h3><span class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-time-duration">05:01</span><span class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-date">May 25, 2018</span></div></div></div></div></article><article class="gmail-card gmail-card--stream gmail-card--stream--sm"><div class="gmail-card-inner"><div class="gmail-card-text"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify/2018/05/23/quincy-college-nursing-program" class="gmail-card-link"><h1 class="gmail-card-hdr">Quincy College To Reimburse Some Students Of Now-Defunct Nursing Program</h1></a><div class="gmail-card-meta"><div class="gmail-card-meta-inner"><h3 class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-source"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify" class="gmail-card-source-link">Edify</a></h3><span class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-date">May 23, 2018</span></div></div></div></div></article><article class="gmail-card gmail-card--stream gmail-card--stream--sm"><div class="gmail-card-inner"><div class="gmail-card-text"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify/2018/05/23/umass-boston-chancellor-hiring-process" class="gmail-card-link"><h1 class="gmail-card-hdr">What's Next For UMass Boston After Chancellor Candidates Withdraw</h1></a><div class="gmail-card-meta"><a class="gmail-card-action gmail-playable" title="Play" tabindex="0" style="text-decoration:none"><i class="gmail-icon-play gmail-icon-play--sm gmail-icon-play--paused"><span class="gmail-icon-play-shape"><span class="gmail-icon-label">Play</span></span></i></a><div class="gmail-card-meta-inner"><h3 class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-source"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify" class="gmail-card-source-link">Edify</a></h3><span class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-time-duration">03:36</span><span class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-date">May 23, 2018</span></div></div></div></div></article><article class="gmail-card gmail-card--stream gmail-card--stream--sm"><div class="gmail-card-inner"><div class="gmail-card-text"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify/2018/05/22/arlington-students-hateful-graffiti" class="gmail-card-link"><h1 class="gmail-card-hdr">14 Arlington Students Could Avoid Vandalism Charges With Restorative Justice Program</h1></a><div class="gmail-card-meta"><div class="gmail-card-meta-inner"><h3 class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-source"><a href="http://www.wbur.org/edify" class="gmail-card-source-link">Edify</a></h3><span class="gmail-card-meta-item gmail-card-date">May 22, 2018</span></div></div></div></div></article></div></div></div></div><p class="gmail-">Gil Franco says she "cannot visualize teaching a class without" seeing the girl. Now, she will have to.</p><p class="gmail-indent-medium">“She’s
actually required, now, to leave the country" and return to her native
El Salvador, Gil Franco says, her voice trembling. That's due to a
recent change in immigration policy.</p><p class="gmail-">Gil
Franco teaches Spanish-language humanities at the Margarita Muñiz
Academy in Jamaica Plain. It's the only dual-language high school in
Boston, meaning that all subjects are taught in both English and
Spanish.</p><p class="gmail-">As immigration policy began
to change under the Trump administration, Gil Franco says her students
started to ask questions that she couldn't answer: “'Do you think that
I’ll be allowed to enter the [United States] if I leave now?' " Or:
"'What do think will happen if I return to El Salvador?' "</p><p class="gmail-">The research firm InSight Crime recently calculated El Salvador as the deadliest place in Central America, with <a href="https://www.insightcrime.org/news/analysis/insight-crime-2016-homicide-round-up/">81.2 murders per 100,000 people</a> in 2016. (Salvadorans <a href="http://www.bostonplans.org/getattachment/e0019487-138b-4c73-8fe5-fbbd849a7fba">make up 11 percent</a> of Boston's Latino community.)</p><p class="gmail-">Similar questions
are on the minds of many foreign-born students in the U.S. — and there
are more of them than ever. According to the Migration Policy Institute<b>, </b>the proportion of immigrants who are under 18 <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rfk-what-if/">has doubled</a> between 1990 and 2016.</p><p class="gmail-">Under
the Trump administration, those young people are exposed to new
uncertainty -- not only because of the rollback of DACA protections but
also because of the termination of Temporary Protective Status for
immigrants <a href="http://www.wbur.org/news/2018/01/08/tps-ends-el-salvador">who fled El Salvador</a>, but also Honduras, Haiti and Nicaragua. Many of those families have lived in the U.S. for years.</p><p class="gmail-">Gil
Franco understands better than most. She herself was brought to the
U.S. as a child two decades ago; her family left their native Colombia
during a violent era of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-19390164">guerrilla warfare</a>.
And her own journey was uncertain: “My family moved to Boston when I
was 9 years old, and I was able to reunite with them when I was 11 years
old."</p><p class="gmail-">Adjusting to a new country and language, Gil Franco says she learned a lot about her future profession.</p><p class="gmail-">And,
she says, by being a teacher who helps young people adjust to life in
America, she's paying back a debt of service from her time attending
Fenway High School in the 2000s: “If it had not been for all the support
that I received from my teachers, I don’t think I would have been able
to become a confident student that was willing to share my experience,
and what made me unique in my community.”</p><p class="gmail-">Now,
she says, that confidence is being tested. "There are days when I come
into work, and ... I want to ignore it," Gil Franco says. "But I have
learned that I really need to remain strong, because these kids are
still coming to school."</p><p class="gmail-">So, Gil Franco says, even though she herself sometimes worries, she has to convince her students <em>not</em> to: “Children sometimes come into the classroom crying, because they're terrified of losing their parents."</p><p class="gmail-">She
says she tells them: “Don't be afraid. You have never committed a
crime. Your parents have never committed a crime by wanting to offer you
a better future.”</p></section></span></span>
<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div>
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