Immigrants Sue Mpls School For the Right to a Decent Education

[Katrina]

 

Immigrants sue Minneapolis school for the right to a decent education

Blacked Out

 

Ibrahim Mumid (center) and other students look on as attorney David Shulman announces the civil suit aganist Lincoln High

 

Image by Rich Fleischman

by Britt Robson

September 28, 2005

 

By his own account, all Ibrahim Mumid wanted was a chance to understand. "I came to U.S. in 1999," says the Ethiopian immigrant. "In five years," he adds, lower lip trembling, "no speak English, no write my name."

 

Four of those years were spent at Lincoln High School, whose campus was recently relocated from Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis to the heart of downtown. Neither a charter school nor a public school, Lincoln is a private venture operated by an organization called the Institute for New Americans (INA), which has a contract with the Minneapolis public school system to educate teenaged immigrants. The school's annual enrollment fluctuates, but generally hovers around 300 students per year. Mumid is one of 13 immigrant students who have filed a civil lawsuit against Lincoln, alleging that their human rights were violated because they did not receive an adequate education as required by state and federal laws. Also named in the suit were the INA and the Minneapolis Public Schools.

 

Mumid, who wears a hearing aid, describes being kicked out of class and sent to a cafeteria when he asked for help. Through a translator, he tells of the horror he felt when Lincoln High officials scooped him out of class one day and drove him to an adult education center. Frantic and confused, he called his brother to come pick him up. Mumid had been "aged out": At 24, he was too old to stay in school, despite not having completed sufficient work to earn his diploma.

 

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Earlier this year, the Minnesota Department of Education investigated Lincoln after a number of complaints about the school from Mumid and others. The results of that investigation were delivered to MPS Superintendent Thandiwe Peebles in June, and its "findings of fact" appear to buttress claims made in the students' lawsuit.

 

Specifically, the MDE investigation discovered that just 17 percent of the students at Lincoln passed the Minnesota Basic Standards Test over the past three years, compared with a 40 percent pass rate for ELL (English-language learner) students throughout the district. Over the past three years, Lincoln has identified just one student as requiring special education services, and less than 1 percent of its population has used those services. According to the MDE report, the state average is 12.5 percent. "Based on the numbers alone, it is apparent that ALHS does not have a system in place designed to identify students with disabilities," says the report.

 

"The lawsuit challenges the practice of the Minneapolis School District of using Abraham Lincoln High School as a warehouse for immigrant high school aged students," says David Shulman, one of the lawyers representing the immigrants. "Students sat in mainstream classrooms for years, not understanding what was being said, or what was being taught."

 

A press conference last week to rebut the lawsuit turned into a small disaster when MPS legal counsel Allen Giles and Lincoln High Executive Director Joel Gibson both stated that they hadn't read the state's three-month-old report on the school. Another MPS representative, Mary Berry, asserted that the state's June report was preliminary, not final, but Amy Roberts, the Department of Education official who sent the report to Superintendent Peebles, emphasized that "this is a final decision. We render decisions to complaints. Now, it can include corrective action if we feel it is warranted, and the response to that corrective action is obviously ongoing."

 

MPS officials believe that the school has already begun to address some of the nine corrective actions prescribed in the state's 13-page, single-spaced report. At the end of the last school year, the district responded to student complaints by working with Lincoln High administrators to hire a special-education teacher and create a grievance procedure at the school. Afterward, the Minneapolis district elected to proceed with the second and final year of its current contract with the school, a development that may have helped prompt the lawsuit.

 

"We thought they were going to close Lincoln and send students to other schools [in the district] that have shown they do a better job of educating these students," says Ladan Yusuf, executive director of Crossing Barriers, a nonprofit immigrant advocacy organization that has received dozens of complaints about Lincoln. Indeed, a March 24 article about Lincoln in the Star Tribune was headlined, "Troubled Minneapolis School Gets Notice to Close."

 

"We never said we were going to close the school down," counters Birch Jones, the Minneapolis school system's executive director for alternative and charter schools. "I know it was the desire of the students who complained to the state and the [state] office of civil rights. But we take these complaints very seriously and we're prepared to do what's necessary," Jones says. "What this points to is how difficult it is to provide the appropriate special-ed support for students who have a different language and culture. That is what hits us right in the face. The state has been kind enough to give us some extra time and that's what we are working on."

[Castro]

Originally posted by Katrina:

By his own account, all Ibrahim Mumid wanted was a chance to understand. "I came to U.S. in 1999," says the Ethiopian immigrant. "In five years," he adds, lower lip trembling, "no speak English, no write my name."

Though this is not a funny matter, I could hear that last statement being spoken with a very thick African accent. Incidently, if, after 7 years, one is unable to write his or her name, the problem is not with the school (though it gets no applause) but with the person himself. Seems also Ibrahim has problems with math thinking he's been here only 5 years after arriving in 1999.

 

This herding of immigrants into ESL classes for years is just another way to keep them uneducated and a source of cheap labor (the original purpose for letting them in). Canada is notorious for this. I'm pretty sure there are native born Somali kids somewhere in Ottawa or Toronto who are enrolled in ESL classes. Blame the man, eh?

[Pi]

^^ I've heard of that too. How is it possible for someone to be native to a country (born there) and yet need ESL classes? They have high school students (natives) in ESL programs :confused:

[Castro]

^ Kids in grade school herded along with new arrivals, not high school. I personally know of a 4-5th grader that can't write a single sentence. Of course, he can rhyme with the best rappers out there.

[LayZie G.]

The bigger question is what was a man (the one pictured in the center) doing in highschool 4 or 5 yrs ago? Shouldn't be he out retiring, I would want to question that. The better question I would ask is, why a man who has that big of a feero have the nerve to come infront of a camera, he should have had his little brother pretend it was him or something. No judge would allow such nonsense come to his/her courtroom.

 

Somalis are funny pple, first they get with the bank scam after the nigerians abused it, then the auto-insurance fraud, with 10 pple in a family sedan getting to accident, all of them have neck/back injury.(Which I am sad to say still happens)

 

Now we got a 40 yr old looking man saying he was in high school 4/5 yrs ago and he wants to sue because he didn't take the initiative of learning on his own or seeking help so he can be taught properly. Surely, he is not stup*d just because he can't speak and write his name in english.

 

What was he thinking? Who is he kidding?

I gotta admit thought, it was fun reading the article.

[ElPunto]

^^^If they speak Som-Glish and have no parents that insist their kids not be herded in there, then ESL for Somali native born would be much less of an issue.

[Castro]

Originally posted by LayZieGirl:

Surely, he is not stup*d just because he can't speak and write his name in english.

It's not so much his intelligence I question but his effort. Certainly writing one's own name is but a small goal to reach in 6 or 7 years. We should strive for bigger things, no?

[Sayyid]

Those bloody immigrants with their masterplans of deceit!

 

It was preplanned because they heard that "one" can sue everyone in America (USA).

 

If you're to dumb and still after reading in big letters "Smoking kills" on the label of your cigarette package than afterwards sue them for big money it is only fair that those immigrants do the same.

 

America i am on my way I've heard you can make big "bucks" by sueing everything and anything. Nothing is your "own" fault anymore in the US!

[AbStraCt]

I think you guys areinsensitive goons....so quick to stand up for the school system, and more eager to bash the poor guy

 

So he's 24.....that doesnt give the effin school system the right to deny him education...just because he's an immigrant that says nothing about his character.......You know how much money these school superintendents and their cohorts get....

 

They put immigrant children in schools that lack material and teachers....and when they cant deal with them, they take them to recess....year in and year out, the recieve all this money and grants from charities and non profit organization but what do they do with it....build gymnasiums and fund extracurricular activies...and because of that, HE CANT READ......

[Sayyid]

^The fact that he is unable to read and is living in the US is inexcuseable in itself.

[Castro]

^ Literacy:

definition: age 15 and over can read and write

total population: 97%

male: 97%

female: 97% (1999 est.)

 

population: 295,734,134 (July 2005 est.)

 

Using these two (6 year apart) estimates, Ibrahim could be one of the 5,944,256 who can't read.

 

Abstract: No one is excusing the schools, they take the cake when it comes to blame. But to not write one's name? Saaxib, it's not like one needs to go to school for that.

[Sayyid]

That's from a population of 297 million in the US, compared to the UK in which roughly 59 million people live, which thereof an estimated 11 million are illiterate.

[NASSIR]

Well Come to California. You would be suprised by the higher level of decent education open to all residents and non-residents, regardless of their educational background.

 

I think the state assesses its budget on education based on the tax income collected from its citizens.

MN should ask a percentage increase on their tax withhold so that more money could be earmarked for a decent education.

[Castro]

^ It's not just a matter of tax dollars but also one of systemic and institutional racism.

[AbStraCt]

Maskiinka, how could you blame him...you arent aware of his circumstances....first of all he is hearing impaired, and as the article stated the school acts as if none of its pupils are disable...

 

haha-->that's for the california school system advocate we have over here.....

 

I've went to California public schools..they're nothing to get cheery about....i think for the most part MINNESOTA schools are very good and have a high level of money is going into them....but you have to remember to seperate MINNESOTA schools from MINNEAPOLIS schools.....Minneapolis which houses all the minority kids (madow iyo somali alike) has recieves the least amount of money to deal compared to all the other suburban school districts. However you can easily send your kid to these suburban school; the bus will even pick em up at your door step. But most parents dont utilize this, the reasons can vary.....

 

Lets get back to the man in question tho...he's a 24 year old hearing impaired immigrant, due to his age no suburban school would allow him to enroll.....is it his fault he cant read.....I SAY NAY! (heh, always wanted to say that)