Tucson USD To Un-ban Chicano Books

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco Editor

A resolution to un-ban the Chicano literature books that had been previously banned by the Tucson Unified School District has been placed on the board’s agenda for it’s upcoming July 24th meeting.  The item was requested by Mark Stegeman, the same board member who proposed and promoted the ban that was approved by a 4-1 vote in January of this year. You can read a copy of the agenda item request HERE, posted by the Tucson Weekly.

This turn of events comes after months of activism and protests. And this week the groups UNIDOS and Freedom Summer held a press conference in front of Stegeman’s house to call attention to the latest twist, the un-ban, as a political tactic. Stegeman is running for re-election. This from the Protesting Arizona website:

Former board President and current board member, Mark Stegeman, will be introducing a resolution to “un-ban” the MAS books he had voted to box up in February. As representatives of the movement to reinstate MAS in TUSD schools we question this move on several fronts. Why now? What does Dr. Stegeman hope to gain by this strange reversal? After two years of a relentless drive to help eliminate the MAS program from TUSD, is Stegeman now reconsidering the damage he has inflicted on TUSD students and the Mexican American community or is this an attempt to bolster his re-election campaign by telling more lies to sugar coat the truth?

Stegeman’s campaign retorted with a press release of their own (published in the Tucson Weekly):

 On July 24 the Governing Board of the Tucson Unified School District will consider a resolution introduced by Mark Stegeman.

The proposed resolution reads:

The books which were used in the suspended Mexican American Studies courses, including the seven titles which staff removed from classrooms in January 2012, shall henceforth be subject to the same rules for classroom use as are all other books which are not specifically approved by the board for a specific course. Those rules, which accommodate incidental or temporary use of unapproved books, are defined by statute, board policy, and the district’s posted regulations.

“It’s time to end the special treatment of the Mexican American Studies books,“ Stegeman said. “When the Board suspended the Mexican American Studies classes in January, in response to the threat of a state funding cutoff, the Board’s resolution did not mention books. After discussions with the Arizona Department of Education, TUSD staff made the decision to remove seven titles from classrooms, as a step to show compliance with statute during the transition semester. I understand that reasoning, but that semester has ended, and it is time to move forward.”

Many in the Tucson Latino community are not convinced. The problem at this point, they say, is not the book ban, it’s the person who spearheaded the movement.

Thanks to Twitter follower @RoqPlanas for the story heads-up.