In 1980 I ventured into one of the most difficult situations I’d ever engaged in my entire life.  I decided to go before the Fort Worth Independent School Board meeting to denounce their proposal to allow children of illegal immigrants to attend our public schools.

As soon as the news media got wind of my proposed presentation to the school board to ban children of illegals into our schools, I started getting phone calls from news outlets from throughout the Metroplex.  I vividly remember one reporter from the old Dallas Times Herald calling me at work and asking me why I didn’t want undocumented kids in our schools. When I explained to the reporter what non-bilingual teachers (not fluent in Spanish) were experiencing in their classrooms, she totally distorted our phone interview. The following day, one of my bosses who subscribed to the Dallas Times Herald came to me and said, “James, you are in a hell of a mess aren’t you?” as he handed me the newspaper.  There in large type was this headline, “Mexican American Opposes Undocumented Children to Attend School!”  Folks, I was mildly shocked.

In reality, what pushed me to get involved in that school fiasco was due in part to the fact that Hispanic teachers didn’t have a voice in what was happening in their classrooms.  Here I’d like to set the record straight and attempt to illustrate the Hispanic teachers’ quandary.  Children of illegal aliens were allowed to attend our school in those years, however Hispanic teachers were given the difficult task of teaching them regardless of whether they spoke Spanish or not.  Hispanic teachers who didn’t speak Spanish, actually served as babysitters instead of teachers.  Some didn’t have the language skills or the teaching tools to work with the undocumented kids.  I remember one Hispanic math teacher telling me, “James, I went to college to be a math teacher, not to be a bilingual teacher!”  Another Hispanic teacher who was fluent in Spanish, told me, “James, I’m usually assigned four or five monolingual students and feeling sorry for them I dedicate half of my class time with them instead of working with the whole class.  Last year, after working half a semester with three monolingual kids from Mexico, their parents took them back to their homeland.  I was totally disgusted with myself because I didn’t dedicate my teaching time to the entire class.  In other words folks, American kids were being denied the full attention of these Hispanic teachers.  These two incidents, plus others too numerous to mention, propelled me to oppose the school district’s decision to allow undocumented children in our schools.

Another reason I decided to speak before the School Board was that Hispanic groups like: American GI Forum, LULAC, and Mexican American Legal Defense Fund wanted to expand bilingual education to the 12th grade with the exception of music and PE.  Plus, these groups didn’t want to recognize a bilingual teaching tool that worked superbly in a three-year school experiment in El Paso, Texas ‹ Immersion.  The teaching method the nuns used and worked very well on me and my school chums at my predominately Hispanic San Jose Catholic School back in the 1940-50s.

After writing my presentation I was informed that I could only speak for five minutes.  After I timed it, my presentation took ten minutes. Given that tight spot, I asked my Uncle Pete if he would make the first five minutes of my presentation while I would follow him with the remaining content.  Hesitantly and somewhat scared, he agreed to join me in my precarious endeavor.

When the day of the school board meeting finally arrived, I felt like the biblical prophet, Daniel in the den of lions.  I could feel intense anger and hatred towards me as I walked into the School Board assembly room. Surprisingly, the assembly room was full to capacity as TV cameras blared. Sitting behind one of the two speaker’s podiums, attendees behind me quickly moved to another part of the assembly room.  Evidently, they did want to show any support for me.  After those sitting behind me moved, six brawny white men remained.  Soon, one of the men came and told me, “Mr. Reza, were are KKK members and are here to protect you in case someone wants to harm you.”  I assured him that I would be OK and thanked him.

As those opposing me began addressing the school board, I noticed that not one speaker showed any concern for the educational welfare of American students.  Most voiced their support to admit the children of illegal aliens in our public schools even at the educational expense of American kids. After my Uncle Pete made the first part of my presentation I took to the podium.  There was an eerie silence as I began to illustrate to the members of the School Board the educational concerns Hispanic teachers had relayed to me. It was then that I made this salient statement, “Ladies and gentlemen of the School Board, don’t be led to believe that an American Hispanic child’s educational needs mirrors that of a child from Mexico.  Their educational teaching methods and needs are totally different.  I beg not to jeopardize the education of American kids.  If you must educate the children of illegal aliens so be it, but don’t hurt our own while doing it.” To my surprise the School Board voted in my favor and stopped admitting children of illegals in Fort Worth schools for one year.  However, Judge William Wayne Justice a year later struck down the ruling and the rest is history.

By now, many of you might be asking, “James, were you most embarrassed when a KKK member went to show his support for you?”  No ladies and gentlemen, that was not my most embarrassing moment.  My most embarrassing moment was when not one American Hispanic, Black, or White parent showed up to support me as I went to fight for their kid’s education!

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