Menominee Seventh Grader Suspended for Saying "I Love You" in her Native Language

[MrScorpio]

SHAWANO, WISCONSIN - What's love got to do with it? Not much, especially if you say the words "I love you" in the Menominee language in front of a certain Wisconsin teacher.



Miranda Washinawatok
Menominee
Seventh grader Miranda Washinawatok, Menominee, found this out.

Miranda speaks two languages: Menominee and English. She also plays on her basketball team. However, two Thursdays ago she was suspended for one basketball game because she spoke Menominee to a fellow classmate during class.

Miranda attends Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Shawano, Wisconsin. The school body is over 60 percent American Indian. The school is approximately six miles from the south border of the Menominee Indian Tribe Reservation.

"On January 19 I was told by Miranda she was being benched from playing that night. I found out at 4:20 and we were back at school at 6:30 pm so I could get to the bottom of why she could not play,"

said Tanaes Washinawatok, Miranda's mother.

"Miranda kept saying she was only told by her assistant coach she was being benched because two teachers said she had a bad attitude. I wanted to know what she did to make them say she had a bad attitude."

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/menominee-seventh-grader-suspended-for-saying-i-love-you-in-her-native-language.html

[ohheckyeah]

1. Wow...

"The teacher went back to where the two were sitting and literally slammed her hand down on the desk and said, "How do I know you are not saying something bad?"

The teacher sounds paranoid.

[saras]

21. The appropriate response is "what business is it of yours if I am?"

"It's not as if I don't have a right to, in English or Menominee.

Just sayin'."

THAT'S the lesson in civics I want to see American schools teach.

[ohheckyeah]

24. Agree.

This country sure has a lot of anal retentive people.

[Posteritatis]

27. Or is simply a bigot

That's the most common problem with most people who get instantly offended at hearing a language they don't understand.

[ohheckyeah]

32. True and that's really

sad. There are a lot of people fearful of anyone who isn't like them.

[HillWilliam]

37. There was a guy in NC who shot up his workplace and a bunch of people

because he was convinced that people speaking Spanish within his earshot were talking bad about him. At least he did the honorable thing and removed himself from the gene pool immediately afterwards.

His family knew he "wasn't right". What I don't understand is why they left firearms within his reach. (I say this as a responsible gun owner.)

I'd have to tell that teacher, "it's not all about YOU, y'know... other people have real lives and you are not a central figure in them."

[closeupready]

2. And these are "teachers"? Of what, bigotry and hatred?

Disgusting. THEY are the ones who should be suspended, not her.

[RKP5637]

5. So much of this crap is soooo ass backward. The innocent are punished and

the guilty are vindicated. It's just another WTF making one wonder how did we get to this state and where are we headed. Diverse, equal and free nation, my ass.

[RKP5637]

3. The stupid in this country runs very deep and the pervasiveness is often

astounding. This, is outrageous.

[Brickbat]

4. Update: The principal has apologized for the benching.

http://www.htrnews.com/article/20120203/MAN0101/302040047/Principal-apologizes-after-benching-student-who-used-Menominee-tribal-language?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|s

Sacred Heart Principal Dan Minter said Wednesday he made the decision to bench Washinawatok before he was completely aware of what had happened.

"It was breakdown in communication," he said. "It was very unfortunate and I do apologize. I wasn't aware that the Menominee language was involved. We plan to host cultural events, and hope to put a positive spin on it. There are things to be learned and ways to grow."

In a letter dated Tuesday to parents and families of the school, Minter said: "Recently, an incident occurred at our school involving an exchange between a student and a teacher, which resulted in premature disciplinary action being taken by the school with the student. After a careful review of the facts, and after speaking with representatives from both sides of the incident, I can assure you that this action was not the result of any discriminatory action or attitude and did not happen as a negative reaction to the cultural heritage of any of our students or school families.

"I regret if there was any perception by a student or family that this in any way promoted an atmosphere of cultural discrimination."

Pretty tone-deaf, in any case. But then, the church kind of has a history of this type of thing.

[RKP5637]

7. The good part is at least he admitted it was wrong, often religions

recognize no wrongdoing, everyone is a sinner by default.

[appleannie1]

8. Seems to me that he should have asked the student her side before suspending her and if anyone

needs a lesson in how to act, it is the teacher.

[justiceischeap]

10. Um... so now we just suspend students without actually knowing why we're suspending students

Cool! That should really help with time management.

[Posteritatis]

26. That's the whole point of zero tolerance policies, no? (nt)

[Ecumenist]

13. PLEASE, the only reason he said this is because THEY GOT CAUGHT!!

He knew that that little girl was speaking her language, please...60% of the student body is Native and he claims not to know the facts of this case?

[Posteritatis]

28. Yep. If this didn't make the news he wouldn't have budged. (nt)

[appleannie1]

6. Native American was spoken long before English was spoken in Wisconsin. Someone should teach that

teacher history. She is the one speaking the wrong language.

[Neue Regel]

9. Maybe it sounded like "F*** you, bitch!" in English

[DevonRex]

18. If you click on the link

and read the article, you'll find that it sounded nothing like that, or like any other bad word in English. A classmate asked her to teach her how to say hello and I love you.

[Posteritatis]

25. And "maybe" it didn't. (nt)

[Posteritatis]

29. Also, this is a fantastic example of the whole problem in the first place

The teacher could have asked the students, but instead assumed they were being obscene.

Regel could have looked at the article, which quotes what they said verbatim; instead we have this suggestion that they said something which sounded obscene.

Both are examples of people leaping straight over the readily-available facts to the conclusions they'd like to reach about the whole affair.

[Shankapotomus]

11. Menominee

Sorry this happened but I'm so glad it introduced me to a Native American nation I'd never heard of before.

[xmas74]

45. It's a decent sized area in Northern Wisconsin.

http://www.menominee-nsn.gov/

Oh, look-they're greeting everyone on the page with "hello", just like the little girl said in the article.

[Ecumenist]

12. I.HOPE.THEY.SUE!! This is fucking ridiculous and to think that this still goes on in 21st

century America is beyond disgusting.

[Neue Regel]

17. I find the impulse to sue everyone for every transgression to be ridiculous

People make mistakes. Many times a heartfelt apology is sufficient. What would be gained by suing, and who should be sued - the teacher, the school? People suing for anything and everything are what led to zero tolerance policies being instituted across the country. By treating everything exactly the same with no chance for errors in judgment (because use of judgment is not allowed), schools hope to shield themselves from lawsuits.

[Ecumenist]

19. Not all lawsuits result in monetary awards you know. Many times, like this, they result in policy

changes like those filed during the civil rights era. Things need to change and too still see these things happening in this day and ago is shameful. PERIOD.

[Blue_In_AK]

14. Wow, this is bad.

In many of our Native villages, the Native language and customs are taught even to any white kids who happen to be attending. Here's an example: http://www.yupik.org/printer_5.shtml Punishing her for speaking her Native language is so 19th Century.

[ret5hd]

42. well, 20th century too.

i know several older men who were sent to the "indian" boarding schools, and they were forbidden from speaking their native language.

[digonswine]

15. Shawano is not doing so well--

First this. . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12187804

and now this unsavory episode. We are being poorly represented by these fools.

[jwirr]

16. Back to the good old days when if you spoke your lauguage they shoved your head down the toilet

seat hole as punishment. And if I am not mistaken that was a bunch of nuns doing that to our great grandmother also. This teacher should be suspended for a week for her misuse of power.

[Posteritatis]

30. Ugh, yeah. That kind of BS ended humiliatingly recently here in Canada. (nt)

[glinda]

20. Mercury levels on these teachers should be checked. Seriously something wrong.

[HillWilliam]

39. I'm not sure it's the mercury level

Some people are usually full of shyte. That teacher sounds about a quart low.

[Odin2005]

22. WTF???

[Number23]

23. What a beautiful girl. Hopefully she can teach her teachers that being bi-lingual

and respecting your heritage are not things to be punished for.

[Honeycombe8]

31. I understand that in some areas there's discrimination against Native Americans.

I find this odd, but I have never lived in an area with a lot of Natives, so maybe that's just a given in any area where there is a large number of a minority, there's a backlash or something. I can't imagine having anything against Native Americans.

But for the language suspension thing, I'm wondering if it's because the student she spoke to in her Native language didn't understand that language, and there's a rule against that. I can see that...kids could walk around saying who knows what to other students, knowing they can't understand what they're saying. But it should apply to any language, not just a Native language. If you're going to have that rule at all.

But if it's just because they don't want the Native languages spoken at all, then that is clear discrimination and very sad. That should be fought in a court.

[Posteritatis]

33. Did you read the article? (nt)

[hedgehog]

34. Is it at all possible that this is about talking in class,

regardless of language?

Still, suspension seems way over the top!

[Posteritatis]

35. Then she wouldn't have been suspended for that and not fictitious obscenity, wouldn't she? (nt)

[hedgehog]

41. The story is a little vague on certain details -

for example, one teacher supposedly heard the talking, but two teachers are involved? Reading carefully, the account of being disciplined for speaking in Menominee seems to come from the student. It's not clear that the teacher corroborated the charge. Or, it could have gone like this:

Teacher slams hand on desk) "What have I told you about talking in class?"

Student: "I was just telling my friend how to say "I love you" in Menominee....."

Teacher: "How do I know that's what you were saying, you could have been talking about me!"

The teacher could have failed to stay on point (No talking in class) and been successfully distracted into discussing what was said.

No matter what, suspension seems an awfully strong penalty for a first instance of talking in class! The teacher may have justified the punishment because the student back-talked.

[Posteritatis]

43. Or what was described, as opposed to your made-up scenario, may simply have been what happened. (nt)

[hedgehog]

46. From Brickbat's link :

"She said the girls were one of a number of groups of students chatting while the teacher worked on progress reports."

Sounds like the teacher is paranoid - I don't think it would have mattered if the girls were speaking Menominee, French or Mandarin - she would have assumed they were talking about her!

[gulliver]

36. She was suspended (benched)...from one basketball game.

That's not really suspended. People sure do love to overreact.

I'm betting there was a lot more to the story. Teenage girl, talking to "a classmate," reported in Native News Network...

[Posteritatis]

40. Surprised it took this long for someone to trot out "I'm betting there's more to this." (nt)

[KamaAina]

38. Dear school: 'Ai kukae!

And yes, that is something bad, in 'olelo Hawai'i.

[hedgehog]

44. I looked up the school, and we are talking about a parochial

school, grades pre-K to 8.

[and-justice-for-all]

47. That is just fucking absurd...I hope that 'teacher' gets canned...

und Ich Leibe Dich!!!!

[and-justice-for-all]

48. Well here is problem..

"Miranda attends Sacred Heart Catholic Academy.

[Omaha Steve]

49. The First Americans should have protected the borders

K&R!