Learning from Uvalde: The Safe and Brave Schools All Children Deserve

Uvalde Strong: A storied community of advocacy for students

The parents of Uvalde, Texas are no strangers to mobilization when their children’s welfare is at stake. Half a century ago, Robb Elementary was the epicenter for a social movement toward justice and equality. The practice of corporal punishment for speaking Spanish was widespread (Benestante, 2016). Schools were not the safe spaces children and their parents wanted. In Spanish there is a refrain that is intended to offer solace: No hay mal que dure cien años, meaning there is no suffering that lasts one hundred years. A second line to the refrain was added in popular culture: ni pueblo que lo aguante, meaning nor is there a people that will endure it. In the case of Uvalde, unsafe schools no se aguantan; they will not be tolerated.

In 1970, Josué “George” Garza was a popular middle school teacher in Uvalde, Texas. When the school board repeatedly declined to renew his contract, he became a central figure in a six-week school walkout that changed the small town for generations. As one of very few Latino teachers in the district, Garza worked to improve the educational environment for his primarily Latina/o student population. Through de facto segregation, Robb Elementary was known as the Mexican School a decade and a half after the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision had spurred changes throughout the country (Sinta and Rivas-Rodriguez, 2021). With such blatant disparities still on display, Mr. Garza was a beacon of hope for the Latino/a community. He was well regarded as he advocated for parents’ rights and translated for them (Gant, 2016). Garza was instrumental in improving the school grounds of Robb Elementary. He raised funds for a track, a basketball court, and engaged students in civic duties such as watering pecan trees he had planted five years earlier to bring natural beauty to the school (Florido, 2022). Mr. Garza worked toward the ideal of creating inspiring educational spaces for all children.

During Garza’s tenure at Robb elementary, the winds of change were blowing in, not just in his Southern Texas community, but throughout cities in the Southwest of the U.S. Latinos engaged in non-violent demonstrations and boycotts such as those led by César Chavez and Dolores Huerta in California with the United Farmworkers and Rudolfo “Corky” Gonzalez’ Crusade for Justice in Colorado. A cultural revival stemmed from the Chicano Movement, which called for self-determination for Latinos and sought to reclaim and sustain their culture, customs and language. Throughout the Southwest U.S. Latino communities rallied around goals of establishing Chicano Studies programs in schools and universities, bicultural and bilingual education in elementary schools, addressing high school pushout rates, hiring Latina/o teachers and administrators to reflect the school population, (Navarro, 2010) and putting an end to the cruel practice of corporal punishment particularly, for students speaking Spanish.

In Texas, the youth organized as the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in 1967 to address the aforementioned issues. In what would be called the Winter Garden Project, MAYO leaders sought to bring change in areas that had large Latino populations but lacked leadership and representation in key offices (Navarro, 2010). MAYO challenged the longstanding structures of exclusively white held governing offices. There were “increasing attempts to occupy political positions such as the City Council, Commissioners’ Court, and School Boards” (Foley, 1970, p. 256). As for Uvalde, MAYO held its May 1969 annual meeting in town (Navarro, 2010) and the establishment took notice. Robb Elementary’s principal, Mr. E. P. Shannon had been glad to have Mr. Garza serve in a passive role. However, Garza began taking graduate courses at (Southwest) Texas State University and filed to run for county judge, (Gant, 2016). These moves met Shannon’s disapproval. White oligarchs feared they were in danger of losing control of their offices to Tejanos who were empowered by the Chicano movement. As a result, Mr. Garza’s teaching contract for the 1970-1971 school years would not be renewed.

Mr. Garza’s contract woes in Uvalde were the catalyst that sparked a boycott of hundreds of students walking out of classes. While many may be familiar with the Los Angeles Walkouts in March 1968, Texas adolescents and community advocates had already organized walkouts in nearby Edgewood School District in May 1968, next in Edcouch-Elsa in November 1968, and December 1969 in Crystal City. The day after the board meeting that reneged Mr. Garza’s contract, April 14th, 1970, marked the longest boycott by students in history. Against threats of retention, students rallied around a series of demands that included more “Mexican-American “ teachers, books and courses that were inclusive of their culture, and an end to punishment for speaking Spanish. Unfortunately, the school district waited students out and the school year ended. The school district made good on their threat to flunk students, resulting in many not finishing. As a form of punishment, the names of picketing young men were referred to the draft board for the Vietnam Conflict (Benestante, 2016). While there were no immediate changes following the Uvalde 1970 Walkouts, folks like José Aguilera recount how things are different for his grandchildren in this present day. His grandchildren have teachers that share a common ethnicity, enjoy bilingual classes, and are not punished for speaking Spanish.

The change toward dignified and safer schools for the children that Mr. Aguilera mentioned came at a slow pace by legal means as well. Following the Uvalde Walkouts Genoveva Morales, local activist and mother of several school age children, sued Robb Elementary in 1970 on the basis of segregation. The case known as Genoveva Morales et al v. E.P. Shannon et al., was ruled in favor of Morales in 1975 at the appellate court level ordering the Uvalde CISD to desegregate. Uvalde parents don’t give up on their children’s wellbeing easily. The school district sought to dismiss its court supervision over the years. In 2008 the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) advocated on behalf of parents and helped maintain in intact guarantees for bilingual education, faculty, gifted and talented programs, advanced placement courses and (co)extracurricular activities and student achievement (Sinta and Rivas-Rodriguez, 2021). After 47 years of litigation, Genoveva Morales et al v. E.P. Shannon et al., was finally resolved when both parties agreed that the hiring of a compliance consultant satisfied the terms (Robinson, 2017). Spanning almost a half century of litigation, the Morales case illustrates the lengths parents will go to advocate for the children of Uvalde.

Community strength in the face of tragedy

Less than a hundred miles from where we gathered to write this editors’ introduction, nineteen children and two teachers were murdered in their classrooms on May 24, 2022. As it is common for these types of calamities, this senseless crime made international news and gave the city notoriety. Nonetheless, for those of us with ties to the Uvalde, Texas community, the brutality and proximity of the tragedy hit home. Immediately after the tragedy, there was a heightened sense of alarm among parents of school-aged children across the country. The topic of safe schools and the types of schools our children deserve was on the minds of parents and community members. Summer offered a reprieve but, in many schools, the new school year was characterized by a large presence of law enforcement officers and the funneling of foot traffic into buildings through one main door. Feelings of anxiety persisted because of unanswered questions about the safety and welfare of children and staff during the school day.

Motives for school shootings are often attributed to bullying and isolation yet other psychological issues like a lack of empathy and aggression may also be contributing factors in these cases. The early signs of these issues often show up in schools where faculty and staff may be underprepared to spot them. According to Stagman and Cooper (2010) one in five school age children need mental health services, yet only about 25% receive services. Furthermore, there are large gaps in the way we address mental health in schools. Howell and McFeeters (2008) found that Latino children were less likely to use mental health services in both rural and urban areas when compared to children of other ethnicities. When Latino children experience trauma, death/grief, violence, isolation, bullying, and family separations, they gravitate toward educators who speak their language to confide their stories. If these staff are ill-equipped to handle delicate situations, children should have access to bilingual counselors and mental health professionals. Administrators should hire counselors with cultural and linguistic sensitivity. Emergent bilinguals are misidentified and overrepresented in Special Education but are also often under-represented and not provided services due to language differences, inappropriate assessment practices, and lack of access to qualified personnel (Ortiz et al., 2020). Teachers are trained to spot signs of abuse, neglect, medical and nutritional needs but may not be trained to identify problems created when a student’s language, culture and ethnicity are not affirmed. Uvalde has been described as a mental health services desert (Harper and Beeferman, 2022), where prior to the massacre only one psychiatrist served the city and fifteen health professionals. Coupled with the link between poverty and mental health that has been documented (Howell & McFeeters (2008), Uvalde’s social milieu illustrates institutional apathy toward rural, poor, and communities of color.

The massacre at Robb Elementary School may be blamed on lax practices such as unlocked doors and broken locking mechanisms, poor radio reception, an unclear command structure for first responders, and laws that regulate the purchase of firearms. However, this unfortunate mix of failures is rooted in deeper societal issues for how rural public safety is funded (Hansen & Lory, 2020) including inequalities in the structures and resourcing of schools in communities of color. Johnson and Strange sum up the challenges faced by rural communities as influenced by “factors other than poverty, including students with disabilities, students who cannot speak English well, and minority students disadvantaged by generations of racial and ethnic discrimination (2005, p. v). Yet, such communities don’t always passively accept these injustices, their close bonds actually contribute to their agency. Uvalde’s parents and activists have been showing up to city council meetings and school board meetings demanding transparency and accountability for the multiple failures to keep their children safe.

So, what kind of schools do our children deserve? The schools our children attend, where school personnel act as ‘in loco parentis,’ should provide the safety afforded children in their own homes. Children deserve safe spaces where they are free from bullying, humiliation, and dehumanization on the basis of factors such as language, identity, ability, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship status and religion. Children and their teachers deserve safe spaces where they are free from violence and harm. As a result of recent school shootings, we encourage the readership to look beyond the schoolhouse safe spaces toward larger communal brave spaces (Arao & Clements, 2013) – spaces where we step outside of comfort to interrogate and understand the roles and effects of power, privilege and oppression. The safe spaces we have created, according to Arao and Clements, ought to give way to discussions that move from “polite to provocative” (2013, p. 135). In Brave Spaces difficult and uncomfortable conversations take place. As illustrated by history, the marginalized and most vulnerable, often bear the burden of having to push for change. Our children deserve for all adults to create Brave and Safe Spaces.

Brave and safe spaces: How can we help?

The people of Uvalde remind us that they have faced adversity before. In the past, they found ways to unite in solidarity to create brave spaces that address inequities in their community. We can help their and other communities by reflecting on the types of schools all children deserve.

• Be brave and examine your own role in systems of power, privilege and oppression

• Be brave and move beyond polite conventions in matters of school safety

• Be a part of a larger non-violent movement that raises issues of injustice for teachers and students

• Be willing to challenge structures of exclusivity

• Be a leader by filing for positions on school boards and other county offices

• Be willing to speak up for all children and ways to ensure their futures

Speaking for the children, in an impassioned speech, Matthew McConaughey, an Uvalde born actor, spoke at a White House Press Briefing weeks after the killings of teachers and children. In the briefing he shared writings and drawings authored by the child victims. More poignantly Mr. McConaughey and his wife shared an artifact, a pair of green Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers with a hand drawn heart that turned out to be the only recognizable trait of one child (The White House, 2022). Mr. McConaughey communicated the wishes of several parents of the deceased: “That they want their children’s dreams to live on. That they want their children’s dreams to continue to accomplish something after they are gone. They want to make their loss of life matter.” (The White House, 2022). In the spirit of their parents’ wishes some changes with regard to gun legislation were enacted through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. In addition, support for expanding or establishing mental health services in schools was written into the act. Yet, as parents in Texas and throughout the nation can attest, there is still much more work to be done to ensure the futures of everyone’s child.

Uvalde’s grassroots activism in the Civil Rights era, the Morales Case, and the recent surge in attendance at city council and school board meetings illustrate the power of collective action. Our articles in this issue exemplify collective efforts of teachers, parents and researchers in U.S. and international contexts to advocate for brave spaces with educational practices that ensure that our emerging bilingual children enjoy spaces where they can thrive.

Research articles

Our first research article titled Designing and facilitating language interpretation experiences with 2nd and 3rd grade bilingual learners: Learning from teachers’ experiences by Susan Hopewell, Kathy Escamilla, Maria Ruiz-Martinez and Katia Zamorano is a case study where the researchers studied a strategy in bilingual classrooms that entails students discussing, interpreting and translating passages of text. The approach is referred to as Así se dice. The research team followed up with four teachers who participated in two-years of professional development. The four teachers were observed as they taught in dual language and transitional 2nd and 3rd grade bilingual classrooms. Teachers were specifically observed while engaging with Así se dice in their classrooms. Interviews were conducted to learn about their perceptions on the pros and cons of the approach. The participants identified the useful nature of the strategy in providing students with predictable routines, accommodating multiple proficiency levels, an enhanced connection between content and genre, and finally data for future instruction. Conversely, the participants identified challenges such as having to select appropriate text passages for the activity, the amount of time and work translating takes, and some doubts about whether they were implementing the activity appropriately. The authors found that teachers valued learning from each other’s reflections and most importantly that students are able to develop mature biliterate abilities through translating activities. The study offers implications for practicing teachers and teacher educators.

Yenda Prado, Michelle Ramos, Elizabeth Peña, and Jenny Zavala present the article Dual-Language Engagement: Concerted Cultivation of Spanish Use among Students, Teachers, and Parents. Using Annette Lareau’s concept of concerted cultivation and drawing on Tara Yosso’s theory of the transmission of community cultural wealth as cultural capital, Prado and colleagues illustrate how working-class parents of diverse backgrounds also engage in cultivating Spanish at home and school. While students’ language moves may privilege English more than Spanish in dual language settings, Prado and colleagues set out to observe how teachers and parents work in tandem, as concerted cultivation, to organize daily life and institutional interventions to privilege Spanish. The study took place at a charter school in California that was originally able to skirt the English only policies of Proposition 227. Two decades later, the school continued its philosophy of developing bilingual students. The authors observed classes in grades 1^st, 4^th and 7^th grades and interviewed six teachers and sixteen families. The study found that teachers utilized several strategies to use the home language as support for dual language engagement and development. In turn, parents actively engaged in activities that encouraged language use and development in the home and in daily life. The authors offer implications for how schools can provide support for teachers to work in tandem with parents to collaboratively develop students’ language use.

Ilana Umansky, Karen Thompson, James Soland, and Amanda Kibler bring us Understanding Newcomer English Learner Students’ English Language Development: Comparisons and Predictors. This quantitative study analyzed data of four years from one state that has about a 10% English Learner population. The study set out to measure English Language Proficiency (ELP) growth in newcomer students. Using WIDA’s ACCESS annual English Learner Proficiency assessment, data were analyzed to determine the rate of growth of Newcomer students when compared to non-Newcomer students. The authors looked at several predictors that could influence the rate of growth of ELP such as student, program and school characteristics. Other variables considered were grade of incorporation into U.S. schools, free or reduced-price meals, special education services, and refugee or accompanied minor status. Umansky and colleagues confirmed that newcomers who entered school with beginning proficiency levels of English grew quickly in their first and second years. While there were few bilingual education programs from which to draw data, they were still able to determine that English language development did not stall in programs that used the students’ home languages as part of the instruction. Student ELD growth appeared to be driven by their home language literacy. However, students in upper grades such as middle and high school were found to have slower growth as well as students with disabilities. Implications of this study call for teachers and schools to seize the window of opportunity that students have while experiencing an ELD initial growth spurt.

Our fourth research article titled Digital Literacy Practices and Identities of Two Children with Refugee Backgrounds is written by Aijuan Cun. The author set out to examine the digital literacy practices of two girls of Burmese descent who were born abroad and immigrated with their respective families to the U.S. as refugees who fled from religious persecution. The children aged four and six years spoke Burmese, English and had a working knowledge of Arabic for religious purposes. Aijuan Cun conducted her study through home visits where she observed their literacy practices, interviewed them, and asked the girls to create drawings. Both children used cell phones for various purposes. They engaged in video chatting with relatives abroad, played games and watched a mix of popular U.S. cartoons and religious children’s programming. The participants illustrated various funds of identities in their daily lives that were not always recognized by the school community. The researcher suggests that in order for schools to value the varieties of digital literacy practices and identities of refugee children they need to provide inviting spaces where they can share their home practices with their peers. In addition, Cun, calls for teachers to connect school-based literacy practices with the multimodal literacy skills already in use at their home settings.

Our fifth research article is titled Exploring Bilingual and Dual Language Teachers’ Perspectives on Asset-Based Professional Development in Science and Engineering. This study reports on a collaborative study conducted by Marialuisa Di Stefano, Idalis Villanueva, Elizabeth McEneaney, Edwin Marte Zorrilla, and Alberto Esquinca. This article focuses on the design, development and validation of a multi-method instrument that helps researchers understand the elementary dual language and bilingual classroom teachers’ perspectives of Science and Engineering. The sample included 105 teachers from both Puerto Rico and Massachusetts who responded either in English or Spanish to a survey sent out by the team. Teachers identified a willingness to engage in professional development in Spanish that focused on how to aid students in developing both their biliteracy and content knowledge. The research team found that teachers acknowledged the need for Science and Engineering professional development that considers the languages and cultures of both students and teachers and positions these preferences/abilities as assets.

The Bilingual Research Journal encourages authors to submit research manuscripts in languages other than English. Our last research article is written in Spanish, and it represents a multinational study where faculty from the U.S. and México collaborated to bring about an understanding about the educational and social hardships transnational students face when they move back and forth between the two countries and enroll in schools. The article, Superando Fronteras: Equidad Educativa para los Estudiantes Transnacionales (Overcoming Borders: Educational Equity for Transnational Students), is written by Guillermo Ahumada Camacho, Ricardo González-Carriedo, Dimna Silvia González Hernández, Sandra Cristina Machuca Flores, and María Isabel Sañudo Guerra. As a way to learn about the experience of transnational students the team interviewed four teachers: two were from the U.S. and two from México. Ten pre-teen and teenage students were also interviewed; all had experienced living and attending school in both countries. Through the interviews, the authors of the study learned about the social difficulties brought about by moving among the two countries including isolation and anxiety. According to the students, teachers played an important role in facilitating their adaptation, incorporation, and recognizing social issues the students faced. Another key finding from the teachers was the lack of tools and preparation they themselves lacked to ameliorate the challenges transnational students faced when moving to new educational settings. The third and final finding was referred to by the teachers as a lack of access to equitable and adequate education. Teachers spoke about the barriers to cultural, linguistic and special needs considerations. The authors of the study offer implications for teachers and administrators of both countries to consider with students of interrupted, multilingual and multinational schooling experiences.

Book reviews

This issue includes three book reviews. The first review is authored by Karolina Rosiak who reviewed Family Language Policy in the Polish Diaspora: A Focus on Australia. This book is written by Piotr Romanowski. It focuses on the practices of Polish immigrant parents and their efforts to maintain their children’s heritage language in English speaking Australia. This monograph begins with the history of Polish migration and details two key waves of immigrants. The book details the case studies that shed light on how three families with two children each enact their own family language policies in a new country. Implications for how families enact their language socialization strategies and the language ideologies they operate from are explored. The book is a promising read for scholars and researchers in the areas of multilingualism, sociolinguistics and applied linguistics.

Our penultimate book review is written by Rizal Rochman, Tenri Ampareng, and Nur Anita Syamsi Safitri. Their review of Larissa Aronin and Eva Vetter’s Dominant Language Constellations Approach in Education and Language Acquisition offers us a glimpse into the contemporary research in the domains of multilingual families, schools teacher education programs, and other higher education settings of language education. The edited volume offers examples of language education policy in several countries across the globe. The main line of research woven through this curated book offers a glimpse into Dominant Language Constellations where speakers of multiple languages engage in their worlds by drawing on their language repertoires and engaging with the most important or relevant language in communicative exchanges for an individual or group. The Dominant Language Constellations Approach offers insight in the how, why, where, why, and with whom these groups or individuals use their linguistic repertoires. The book offers a novel way of looking at language policy for researchers and scholars of linguistics, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and multilingualism.

Our last book review is brought to you by Kara Rash. The book, Living, Learning, and Languaging Across Borders: Students Between the U.S. and Mexico is written by Tatyana Kleyn and Tim Porter. The authors chronicle the experiences of nine participants whose ages range from 7 to 23 years old. They were born or lived in the U.S. and their families returned to Oaxaca with them in tow. For the purpose of this book all participants are classified as retornados. The authors do a fabulous job of highlighting the complexity of their experiences that entail a complex sense of belonging and identity with folks of different age groups. The range of experiences is what makes the book a fascinating read. Implications for policymakers and pedagogical implications are discussed by the authors.

These six research articles and three book reviews of the second issue of the forty fifth volume of the Bilingual Research Journal offer portraits of the types of schools our children deserve and the roles teachers and parents can take in bilingual education. Themes across the articles that provide insight into keeping our schools safe include:

• Whether a child’s heritage language is Spanish or Polish or Burmese, these languages are a gift to be preserved as English is added.

• A sense of belonging where identity and biliteracy thrives ought to be expected and planned for all grades.

• Professional development that honors family language policies and cultural ways of knowing facilitates content area learning.

The research studies in this issue illustrate the complex nature of the education of bi/multilingual children. The articles speak of the concerted efforts visible when teachers and parents work in a synergistic manner to bring about the development of healthy identities and an ecosystem that respects their home languages and cultures. The articles and book reviews also offer a glimpse into the global nature of diasporic movement of families and school-aged children. Most salient is that prior schooling experiences are understood as assets and departure points for learning rather than considered as detriments. Lastly, safe and brave practices in schools offer children the security that their whole self is valued.