High school students protest after teacher tells class to ‘speak American’



Students at a New Jersey high school staged a walkout on Monday after a teacher reportedly told three Spanish-speaking students to “speak American.”

“Men and women are fighting. They’re not fighting for your right to speak Spanish,” the teacher said of U.S. soldiers. “They’re fighting for your right to speak American.”

The teacher at Cliffside Park asked two of the students to stop whispering before the controversial statement was recorded in a video originally posted on Snapchat.

One student, 16-year-old Vianery Cabrera, said she and a friend were chatting about the Yankees in Spanish – the language they were most comfortable using -- when the teacher “snapped" at them.

The video shows students scoffing at the teacher’s remarks, while at least one teen immediately leaves the classroom in response.

"First of all American is not a language. That's first," freshman Omar Toledo told WPIX-TV. "I think she was just trying to get her class to stop speaking Spanish, but she said it in the worst way possible."

After the video spread, more students became angered and at least 100 students chose to participate in Monday's walkout in protest.

Some students were seen waving flags from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Brazil during the demonstration.

According to U.S. census data, nearly 30 percent of the Cliffside Park community is Hispanic.

The Cliffside Park School District held a meeting Monday night to discuss what the superintendent described as a personnel matter, NorthJersey.com reports.

However, the school has not publicly commented on how it's handling the teacher's remarks or if it will punish the students who walked out.

Are we teaching the wrong message to our children?

i would have gotten sent to the principal and she would have smacked me a couple times with her paddle (or more)
<shrug>

well i grew up thinking it was American English
English to me is from over sea's and they talk different then us
ya dont hear people talking about there mockey ans here
they say dirty hands

sounds like all that could have been handled differently

if they get that upset about that , wait till the kids learn about the leaders of are world <rolls eyes>

Not everyone here is from Yorkshire!
English is just classed as a basic language, there are many different accents, which I guess you could say American is one, Australian another and so on.
So get dem attitudes fixt in da hood man

Freakin liberals...so sick of the damage they've done here...

From my perspective, no.

I mean what was taught?

1. Centralized compulsory education, paying tax money to the government to have it filtered down to educators, leads to this kind of teacher and this kind of teaching environment.

2. Acculturation as part of immigration is important.

3. Kids are melodramatic a-holes.

This teacher was. The point should have been that they shouldn't be disruptive to the class in ANY language.

Making it about American Soldiers is a guilt tactic used in many discussions about rights, unfortunately, but these teens were being disruptive whispering in class and their language had nothing to do with it anymore than it did what soldiers fight for.

As for quiet protest, I prefer it to any other means of addressing grievance, and MLK provided proof that it has some impact where attention is needed to an issue or concern.

They are H.S. kids. H.S. kids will protest anything if it gets them out of the school building

I was watching this on the local news here.. they were laughing.. texting.. hanging out with friends... having fun.

they could care less of the " protest"

Protest 101,
Future protesters in training.

Yeah.. F.. the " cause"... I got out of class

Is this any different from our school, days ?.. nah,, nope