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os Angeles Times
THE NATION
Learn English, Judge Tells Moms
A Tennessee jurist who has ordered mothers to take language lessons wins the
praise of some locals but raises alarm among rights advocates.
By Ellen Barry
Times Staff Writer
February 14, 2005
LEBANON, Tenn. A judge hearing child abuse and neglect cases in Tennessee
has given an unusual instruction to some immigrant mothers who have come
before him: Learn English, or else.
Most recently, it was an 18-year-old woman from Oaxaca, Mexico, who had been
reported to the Department of Children's Services for failing to immunize
her toddler and show up for appointments. At a hearing last month to monitor
the mother's custody of the child, Wilson County Judge Barry Tatum
instructed the woman to learn English and to use birth control, the Lebanon
Democrat newspaper reported.
Last October, Tatum gave a similar order to a Mexican woman who had been
cited for neglect of her 11-year-old daughter, said a lawyer who is
representing the woman in her appeal. Setting a court date six months away,
the judge told the woman she should be able to speak English at a
fourth-grade level by that meeting. If she failed, he warned, he would begin
the process of termination of parental rights.
"The court specially informs the mother that if she does not make the effort
to learn English, she is running the risk of losing any connection
legally, morally and physically with her daughter forever," reads a court
order from the hearing, according to Jerry Gonzalez, the Nashville attorney
who represents the woman.
Tatum's orders have become the subject of debate in this Tennessee
community, which has seen an influx of non-English speakers over the last
decade. Civil rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties
Union, have charged that his orders are discriminatory and unconstitutional.
But many of Tatum's neighbors cheered the principle behind his act, saying
new immigrants should be encouraged to assimilate more fully into American
life.
Juvenile court proceedings are often more informal than adult cases, and
it's not unusual for judges to give lifestyle advice to parents who come
before them in neglect or abuse cases. And, when written down and signed by
the judge, those instructions take on the force of a court order.
Such orders should pertain to behavior that contributes to abuse and
neglect, said Susan Brooks, an expert on family law at Vanderbilt University
Law School. Brooks said she was not familiar with Tatum's orders, but
typically the inability to speak English would not fall into that category.
The state Supreme Court regards the right to raise one's own children as a
fundamental one, she added.
"That's treading on sacred ground," she said.
Tatum did not respond to interview requests from the Los Angeles Times, but
he has explained that he gave the orders in hopes that the parents would
make a greater effort to assimilate into American society, opening more
opportunities to their children. He has given similar orders to
non-English-speaking parents in as many as five cases.
"Here we have an American citizen who runs the risk of losing out on all the
opportunities if she's not assimilated into the culture," he told the
Lebanon Democrat. He said he has never removed a child from a parent because
the parent did not speak English.
Because records from juvenile court are sealed, further details of the cases
were not available.
In Lebanon, a city 20 miles east of Nashville with a population just over
20,000, it was once rare to hear a foreign accent, much less a foreign
language. Now Lebanon has become home to more than 1,200 foreign-born
agricultural and manufacturing workers, including about 400 whose primary
language is Mixteco, a language indigenous to Mexico.
Though the judge's order may have been a mistake, "the general sentiment is,
if people are going to be in this country, we all have a moral obligation to
learn to speak the language," said Bob Bright, 61, who runs an insurance
agency in Lebanon.
"I know if I was in Mexico I would make an effort to learn Hispanic."
Tatum, a first-term judge, is becoming known for his unorthodox rulings.
Last year, for instance, he sentenced a father to attend high school with
his son to address repeated truancy. Bright said the jurist a well-liked
attorney before he was elected judge has been known to pay personal visits
to prisoners in jail and to join troubled teens in picking up trash as part
of their community service.
In the October case, Tatum made a clear link between the mother's English
abilities and her parental rights, said Gonzalez, the mother's attorney.
In the case, an 11-year-old girl had been placed with a foster family after
allegations of neglect, Gonzalez said. The mother, who spoke only Mixteco,
asked the court to arrange counseling, and the judge denied that request,
instead giving the women a deadline for basic mastery of English.
Gonzalez would not share the judge's written orders, dated Nov. 4, but read
a long passage from the document.
"If the mother is able to learn English, she will be able to speak with her
daughter for the first time in a substantive manner and will show her that
she loves her and is willing to do anything necessary to connect with her,"
the order read.
Gonzalez said the judge was setting the mother up for failure.
"She probably doesn't have a sixth-grade education. I daresay the judge
himself, an educated man, could not learn to speak Spanish to a fourth-grade
level in six months," Gonzalez said. "He gave her an impossible task."
In Wilson County, immigrant workers began to arrive about a decade ago,
attracted by its small-town feel and by jobs. The workers, who mostly are
Mexican, live in clusters in which they can communicate in their own
language, said Alexis Andino, 41, who heads a Latino ministry at Lebanon's
First Baptist Church.
Language has become a flash point for some of the local population, which
was measured as 83% white in the 2000 census.
Glenda Williams, 57, a clerk at Cuz's Antique Center, said some shopkeepers
have gone out of their way to accommodate the new immigrants by studying
Spanish. Williams is not one of them. "I'm not taking a class, and I don't
plan to," Williams said. "If you come through that door and you don't speak
English, I'm sorry. If you love it that much here, you take the time to
take" an English class.
And several local people interviewed said the flap over Tatum's orders has
not hurt his reputation. "That was his way of helping [the mother] and her
child," said Jane Stroud, 67, who works in a Western wear shop.
Linguistic isolation is a real problem, especially for Mixteco-speaking
immigrants some of whom speak no Spanish and are illiterate in any
language, Andino said. Some of those families have not enrolled their
children
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Biwahek idatzi du 2/14/2005 9:20 AM:
"I know if I was in Mexico I would make an effort to learn Hispanic."
Well, at least he didn't say "Mexican."
Marc
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Biwah wrote:
Los Angeles Times
THE NATION
Learn English, Judge Tells Moms
A Tennessee jurist who has ordered mothers to take language lessons wins the
praise of some locals but raises alarm among rights advocates.
By Ellen Barry
Times Staff Writer
February 14, 2005
[snip]
Tatum's orders have become the subject of debate in this Tennessee
community, which has seen an influx of non-English speakers over the last
decade. Civil rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties
Union, have charged that his orders are discriminatory and unconstitutional.
But many of Tatum's neighbors cheered the principle behind his act, saying
new immigrants should be encouraged to assimilate more fully into American
life.
Yeah, a great way to encourage people to immerse themselves into their
community is to threaten them with removal of their children. What a
great motivational strategy. Really good for the kids, too.
[snip]
Gonzalez would not share the judge's written orders, dated Nov. 4, but read
a long passage from the document.
"If the mother is able to learn English, she will be able to speak with her
daughter for the first time in a substantive manner and will show her that
she loves her and is willing to do anything necessary to connect with her,"
the order read.
It hadn't been my understanding to this point that the child didn't
understand the mother's language. That seems unusual.
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On 14/2/05 7:30 pm, in article 5%6Qd.4959$Tj7.1309@twister.socal.rr.com,
"Marc Adler" <marc.adler@gmail.com> wrote:
"I know if I was in Mexico I would make an effort to learn Hispanic."
Well, at least he didn't say "Mexican."
Por supesto.
And BTW, my son's girlfriend, an Anglo-Argentinian, has declared I have a
Spanish accent when I speak (broken) Spanish. Odd, because what little I
speak I learned in ... Colombia.
I've always said that if I were to take British citizenship (which I won't,
because it would (for reasons I won't go into here) raise my income taxes) I
would insist on taking the language exam in Welsh. Or perhaps BSL.
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Biwah wrote:
Last October, Tatum gave a similar order to a Mexican woman who had been
cited for neglect of her 11-year-old daughter, said a lawyer who is
representing the woman in her appeal. Setting a court date six months away,
the judge told the woman she should be able to speak English at a
fourth-grade level by that meeting. If she failed, he warned, he would begin
the process of termination of parental rights.
What is "speaking [any language] at a fourth-grade level"?
--
Peter T. Daniels grammatim@att.net
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Biwah wrote:
On 14/2/05 7:30 pm, in article
5%6Qd.4959$Tj7.1309@twister.socal.rr.com,
Por supesto.
And BTW, my son's girlfriend, an Anglo-Argentinian, has declared I
have a
Spanish accent when I speak (broken) Spanish. Odd, because what
little I
speak I learned in ... Colombia.
That may be because Colombia has the accent closest to Castillian
Spanish in South America. That may be the reason they (colombians)
claim to speak the 'best Spanish in the world' :)
It surely sounds Castillian-ish to Argentinian ears.
J.
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Jordiek idatzi du 2/17/2005 12:39 AM:
That may be because Colombia has the accent closest to Castillian
Spanish in South America. That may be the reason they (colombians)
claim to speak the 'best Spanish in the world' :)
Not according to Colombia's most famous son, who says the purest form of
Spanish is spoken in Mexico (where he lives).
And what about the use of 'usted' even among intimates? (I bet a lot of
people did a double take when they say Maria Full of Grace.) Is that
what the plural usage of the polite form among New World Spanish
speakers sounds like to Spaniards?
Marc
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x-no-archive: yes
Biwah wrote:
"I know if I was in Mexico I would make an effort to learn Hispanic."
Buahahaha. I don't belive him. He hasn't even been able to learn
that language's name.
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