Students Protest Injustice

  • Texting and Facebook were the way that students learned that Jesus "Chuy" Saldaña was not going to be driving their buses any longer, some learned within hours of the dismissal by the El Tejon Unified School District administrator. Students used the same means to coordinate the student demonstrations at El Tejon School and Frazier Mountain High School on Thursday, Jan. 27. Above, an estimated 100-200 students demonstrated at FMHS; 176 signed a petition; 134 stayed out for more than first period, Superintendent Katie Kleier said. Some stayed out the full day, sitting in protest at the flagpole. [Sturdevant photo]

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    Texting and Facebook were the way that students learned that Jesus "Chuy" Saldaña was not going to be driving their buses any longer, some learned within hours of the dismissal by the El Tejon Unified School District administrator. Students used the same means to coordinate the student demonstrations at El Tejon School and Frazier Mountain High School on Thursday, Jan. 27. Above, an estimated 100-200 students demonstrated at FMHS; 176 signed a petition; 134 stayed out for more than first period, Superintendent Katie Kleier said. Some stayed out the full day, sitting in protest at the flagpole. [Sturdevant photo]

  • Jesus "Chuy" Saldaña explained his goal: "to clear my name and for the truth to come out." An assertion was made by a parent that he had driven in a way that made her run over her son's foot at the bus stop on January 20. An eyewitness came forward to refute her account.
[The Mountain Enterprise photo by Gary Meyer]

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    Jesus "Chuy" Saldaña explained his goal: "to clear my name and for the truth to come out." An assertion was made by a parent that he had driven in a way that made her run over her son's foot at the bus stop on January 20. An eyewitness came forward to refute her account. [The Mountain Enterprise photo by Gary Meyer]

  • Alex McCue and Joey Teare hold signs for a peaceful demonstration at Frazier Mountain High School on January 27. When Teare was told he could not talk to the media unless he left campus, students said they stayed out of class and continued the sit-in to also protest loss of their free speech rights and unjust treatment of students.

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    Alex McCue and Joey Teare hold signs for a peaceful demonstration at Frazier Mountain High School on January 27. When Teare was told he could not talk to the media unless he left campus, students said they stayed out of class and continued the sit-in to also protest loss of their free speech rights and unjust treatment of students.

  • Chuy Saldaña says that after retiring from 24 years with Los Angeles MTA, he worked for 12 years for the El Tejon Unified School District, retiring twice from there, then was called back two years ago to drive a bus again. He said he has driven every day for the last two years. Above is the schedule he says he was given by his immediate supervisor for January 18-January 28.

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    Chuy Saldaña says that after retiring from 24 years with Los Angeles MTA, he worked for 12 years for the El Tejon Unified School District, retiring twice from there, then was called back two years ago to drive a bus again. He said he has driven every day for the last two years. Above is the schedule he says he was given by his immediate supervisor for January 18-January 28.

  • Chuy Saldaña says that after retiring from 24 years with Los Angeles MTA, he worked for 12 years for the El Tejon Unified School District, retiring twice from there, then was called back two years ago to drive a bus again. He said he has driven every day for the last two years. Above he is shown with  the schedule he says he was given by his immediate supervisor for January 18-January 28. [The Mountain Enterprise photo by Gary Meyer]

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    Chuy Saldaña says that after retiring from 24 years with Los Angeles MTA, he worked for 12 years for the El Tejon Unified School District, retiring twice from there, then was called back two years ago to drive a bus again. He said he has driven every day for the last two years. Above he is shown with the schedule he says he was given by his immediate supervisor for January 18-January 28. [The Mountain Enterprise photo by Gary Meyer]

School Sit-in Seeks to Send Message

Written by Patric Hedlund with Pam Sturdevant, Gary Meyer, Sara Woerter and Community Reporters.

“Chu-weee, Chu-weee!” and “Save Chuy!” were the chants around the flagpole next to the bus-loading area of Frazier Mountain High School at 8 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 27.

An estimated 134 students staged a sit-in. Some held ‘Sit 2 Save Chuy’ signs and 176 signed a ‘Save Chuy’ petition—44 percent of the 400-student school. Many were there with the consent of their parents.

Their goal, students said, was to get new district administrators to take a second look at what students called an unjust decision regarding terminating the services of Jesus “Chuy” Saldaña and, according to student spokesman Joey Teare, “at how district personnel are being treated.”

In addition to Saldaña, Teare also mentioned former FMHS Drama coach, journalism club advisor and English teacher Kat Fair of Pine Mountain and Coach Jarudd Prosser of Frazier Park. Both teachers were deeply engaged in serving students, and both received pink slips from FMHS Principal Dan Penner last year, Teare wanted to remind The Mountain Enterprise.

Teare tried to speak to television reporters about the issues, but was physically blocked by Principal Penner, who was seen to rush between Teare and a television camera operator. He told the student “Only [Saldaña’s] relatives can be interviewed,” Teare reported. Then students and parents saw ETUSD Superintendent Katie Kleier and Penner step up to the cameras. Parent Susan Graves—who has raised thousands of dollars for school programs—asked Supt. Kleier why Teare was not allowed to express his opinion. Reporters for The Mountain Enterprise heard Kleier tell Graves, “He will have to leave campus if he wants to speak to the media.”

First Amendment attorneys and the U.S. Supreme Court disagree with that statement.

First Amendment on campus

The famous 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District gives students on a public school campus, no matter what their age, the same First Amendment rights that adults have in the United States, said Jim Ewert, Legal Counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

“The California penal code, the United States Constitution and established case law protect the right of a student of any age, with or without parental permission, to speak to the media and express their opinions,” Ewert said in an interview, Friday, Jan. 28.

He emphasized that school authorities may not legally deprive students of that right, although students may not disrupt the educational process when engaged in expressive activities.

Doors of classrooms at the high school were locked Thursday to keep students who were participating in the sit-in from talking with those attending classes.

‘Use the bushes’

Male and female students reported they were told by Superintendent Katie Kleier and Principal Penner that they were not allowed into the school and were told if they had to go to the bathroom, they could “go pee in a bush.”

Kleier vehemently denied she said this. Penner did not return our call on the subject.

Students were also told that they could not get food at lunch time. Some went off campus to secure food. One passed around hot dogs. Another brought along a propane barbecue in the bed of a pick-up and made a collection to buy $60 of meat, students said—but they didn’t actually cook it at the school.

Other students report, but we have been unable to confirm, that a parent protested it was illegal to bar the students from using the bathrooms. By noon students were allowed to use the indoor plumbing and to get lunch, on the condition that they not speak to other students. They brought their lunch items outside.

Prolonging the event

Parent Susan Graves—who stayed at the campus for five hours—said she believes the demonstration would have been completed by 10 a.m. and the students would have been back in class if administrators had not interfered with the students’ freedom of speech.

“They would have been finished and back in class if they had been allowed to freely express their opinions and have their say,” Graves said.

Com-Tech Academy Junior Olivia Loza said, “It started as a protest about injustice toward Chuy, but then when we did not have an opportunity to speak on a calm basis, it went from unfair treatment of an employee to a protest of unfair treatment of students.”

Loza said she had one exchange with Supt. Kleier before knowing who she was. She said she told a woman on a cell phone, “who seemed to be laughing and enjoying” the scene, “We are not being allowed our freedom of speech.” She said Kleier replied, “We have quite a little liberal here, don’t we?”

When we inquired, Kleier said she did not remember making the statement, but did not deny it was possible.

‘Like a Grandfather’

For nearly 14 years, Saldaña has been a widely-respected figure in the lives of Mountain Community school children. Saldaña has driven many of the students who demonstrated on that Thursday to sporting events, on field trips, to school and back home again—many since they were in kindergarten.

He is a soft-spoken, humorous man who laughs easily and is devoted to the students.

“Chuy is like a grandfather to all of us,” El Tejon School student Sarah Houghton, 12 said. “He’s an awesome bus driver. He doesn’t get mad at you. Everyone knows him. He is fair and the kids listen to him because he listens to the kids.”

“When we get noisy sometimes, he’ll start whistling, making bird sounds,” the sixth grader explains. “and it settles everyone down, ‘cause we want to listen to him.” Her brother, Joey Houghton, 17 laughed: “He’s been doing that since I was in fourth grade!”

Sarah continues: “He tells us ‘good morning’ as we get on his bus and tells each of us to have a good day when we get off. He talks with us about things….”

After retiring as a bus driver from Los Angeles’ MTA, Saldaña, (who lives in Lebec) went to work “for the kids” (as he puts it) of El Tejon Unified School District. Though he has retired twice from ETUSD, he says he answered district requests to drive again. After his first twelve years on the job, he said he returned again to work every school day for the past two years—until January 20.

On that day, Fernando Nieto, the new maintenance and transportation supervisor for ETUSD, called Saldaña to the district office after the morning shift. Saldaña says Nieto asked him about an accident. A mother in a car behind the bus had rolled over her son’s foot. Saldaña said he knew nothing about an accident. He said the supervisor told him he was “terminated,” that “the district no longer needs your services.”

Nieto seemed to grow irritable when a reporter asked about that: “I couldn’t fire him, he doesn’t have a job with us… he’s a substitute,” Nieto, from Bakersfield, repeated several times. Nieto had begun his own job with the school district less than three months earlier, following the termination of Craig Stowell from the same position.

On Friday, Jan. 21 Nieto denied there had been a change in employment status for anyone—”temporary, part time or substitute driver”—that week. But Saldaña says he was told to “turn in his time-sheet.” He did not complete the six days he had on his current driving schedule to finish out January.

Parents and students told The Mountain Enterprise many accounts of Saldaña’s talent for working with kids. Kristi Levesque wrote an OpEd about his influence on her son [see page 1]. Graves waved aside the semantics of “substitute” driver. “Whatever [Saldaña’s] job classification may be, he has been one of the most respected people for local school kids from kindergarten through high school,” she said. “My daughter loves him. All the kids have loved him, because he has been a friend to them.”

Both of the Houghton’s children participated in demonstrations. Daughter Sarah said that her sixth grade teacher told students, “you won’t get into a good college and it will go on your permanent record if you protest.” Although she hasn’t met Chuy herself, Monica Houghton said her children “have both talked about Chuy for years.” She said she approved of their taking part in the actions. Her husband saw the accident at San Miguel and told the family Saldaña was not at fault. [See story page 3].

Free Speech Is Not Free

High school administrators and teachers began giving out penalties on Friday morning. If history teaches that civil disobedience often has a price, and that paying the price of creating change is part of the process, still students felt the sting. Some said the school was again not playing by the rules.

Parent Jan Loza said there is a distinction written in the FMHS student-parent handbook saying that “with a ‘cut’ students can’t make up work assigned that day and if they miss a test, they get an automatic “F.” An unexcused absence doesn’t carry the same penalties.” Many students assumed the rules of the manual would be followed.

Joey Houghton and Katelyn Ciotto said they spoke with their parents about their decisions to participate and had their permission. They said they understood that they would have less academic consequences if they stayed out as an unexcused absence. They, and many others, were shocked on Friday when the office staff marked “Cut” on their re-admit slips. Senior Houghton said in four years he has never cut school. He was offended to have that assertion made. Junior Ciotto said they were taking a principled stand that took character, not “ditching class.”

Supt. Kleier said she was unaware of the distinction made in the FMHS student manual. She said in her “big school” experience in Bakersfield, both cuts and unexcused absences are treated the same. She also said that educational sanctions are up to the discretion of the individual teachers.

Olivia Loza said protesting students were ridiculed and shamed on Friday by teachers and other students. One teacher, it was said, gave a pop quiz focused only on Thursday’s class material, weighted with ten times more points than previous quizzes, to disadvantage demonstrating students. Houghton said he had a 90 percent average in that class before, but now his grade is jeopardized. An English teacher is said to have forbidden participating students from submitting missed work to make up points, and refused to provide coaching to improve their final essay due the following week.

Principal Dan Penner has begun a process of calling each student who protested into the office for evaluation, students were told. Penalties may range from suspensions for three days to “lunchtime detention or Saturday school,” students said. A student whose parent wrote a note approving the student protest and giving permission for her daughter to be out of school has not yet received a sanction.

Superintendent Kleier said in an interview February 1 that her main objective was to be sure that students were safe.

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. My greatest concern was the safety of each of those kids,” she said.

There was one injury, determined to have taken place on Falcon Way, west of the campus. A 17-year-old jumped on the back of a moving Jeep and fell off. The student received lacerations requiring stitches and abrasions. The incident was not related to the protest.

This is part of the February 04, 2011 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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