Letter about Hispanic students in Glendale, Arizona spurs controversy
Tony Hill said an unusually disheartening day of substitute teaching Glendale middle-school students spurred him to write a letter to Senate President Russell Pearce.
He didn’t intend for that letter to be read on the Senate floor by Sen. Lori Klein, R-Anthem, or for it to become the center of an immigration legislation debate. He didn’t intend for it to become the focus of a public-records fight between Pearce and the media, or to find himself the center of media attention.
But it was, and now he is.
Hill said he wrote the letter Klein read last week, and he said every word is true. Klein did not name the author during her speech.
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Senate staff originally released the letter following a public-records request, but did not include the name of the author. Sen. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, demanded during the Senate floor session Monday that the author be identified. He questioned the legitimacy of the letter.
Pearce told the media he would not release the author’s name because the teacher would “probably be attacked, probably be fired.”
But a few hours later, Senate Republican staff released the original letter.
When contacted by phone, Hill said he didn’t write the letter out of malice or hatred.
“It just upset me that this was what’s occurring … to see this disregard for America and their hatred towards it and their entitlement,” he said.
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Here’s a link to the letter itself. Standard teabag drivel. I’d be surprised if the author actually taught the class he describes.
UPDATE:
Arizona’s Senate president is refusing to apologize to lawmakers who say he circulated a factually suspect letter about Hispanic students during a debate in hopes of getting his immigration bill passed.Still no word on the veracity of the letter.[…]
UPDATE II:
A school district has launched an inquiry into a substitute teacher who wrote a letter that criticized Hispanic students and was read aloud last week at the Arizona Legislature during a debate on an immigration bill.Glad to see it.The Glendale Elementary School District says it has determined that some statements by teacher Tony Hill in his letter to Senate President Russell Pearce weren’t accurate.
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