Students say racial prejudice exists at schools, but that can change

Students expect audiences to be surprised with the themes in ‘Hay Problemas en Tualatin High’

By Jennifer Clampet

The Times, Jan 4, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jaime Valdez / The Times

MAKING A SCENE — Tualatin High students Adianet Mauro (left) and Liz Coyne act out a confrontation as part of the Act for Action peer education program, “Hay Problemas en Tualatin High.”

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TUALATIN – Geovana Palacios quickly drops her gaze as she comes to the end of her sentence. The phrase “white people” slips from between her tightly drawn lips.

Bringing her hand to her mouth, Palacios quickly apologizes. She isn’t comfortable using colors to describe her friends or classmates, but sometimes it just happens, says the 14-year-old Tualatin High freshman.

When asked what she prefers to be called – Hispanic, Mexican, Latino? – Palacios shrugs her shoulders.

“I just want to be called a student.”

Hispanic enrollment in Tigard-Tualatin schools increased by 70.5 percent – about 800 students – between 2000 and 2005. The quickly changing makeup of the school district has been felt on all levels – elementary, middle and high schools. And unfortunately, students say “racial” prejudice persists.

It’s phrases like “beaner needs a green card,” “yunkies,” “lazy and stupid Mexicans” and “gringos” that students apparently hear at school. And it’s the effects of those phrases manifested into a divided lunch room that reflects life for students in Tualatin, said Jeannie LaFrance, director of Act for Action, a theater education program that focuses on social justice.

Students involved in the upcoming performances of the peer education theater program, “Hay Problemas en Tualatin High,” want things to change.

Derek Barkdoll, a 15-year-old freshman, said he just wants students and faculty to recognize the problems of “racist” language.

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