The ACLU Wants To Know Whether Latino Students Were Singled Out For Poor Test Scores At Texas High School

The American Civil Liberties Union is looking into whether teachers at Gainesville High School in Texas singled out Latino ninth graders for an assembly about low test scores. 

Maurissa Perez, a parent of one of the students involved, contacted The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas to let them know that Latino students at the school had been called to a meeting over the school’s public address system. Once gathered, the students were informed that they were responsible for the school having underperformed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test. The students were also given a talk about gangs and sexual promiscuity. Hm. Kind of sounds like a George Lopez joke.

What makes this story particularly suspicious is the fact that students’ TAKS scores would not have had any impact on the school’s rating or performance since they were eighth graders at different school when they took it. 

Ms. Perez says she also believes the assembly targeted solely Latino students, regardless of test performance, because her daughter is an honors student who did very well on her TAKS:

She felt like it should have been an assembly that was inclusive of the whole student body. I totally agree; I don’t believe in segregated meetings. To me, it’s a simple misunderstanding that they were discriminating against people.

It definitely sounds fishy. We’ll keep you posted.

ACLU investigating whether Hispanic students were singled out for poor test scores [Star-Telegram]