Civil Nonobedience

by David Safier

Russell Pearce and his cronies hate children. It's no big deal for them to cut education to the bone and eliminate KidsCare. But their animus increases when the children have brown skin. To further their extreme right wing agenda, they're willing to sacrifice those children's chances to get an education and potentially endanger the rest of us due to an increase in the number of children and teens wandering around during school hours with nothing to do and little hope for the future.

I'm talking about SB1097.

State senators voted Monday to force schools to ask parents whether their children are in this country legally.

Pearce admits he can't keep these children out of school due to a Supreme Court decision, but he's willing to do everything he can to deny them an education.

However, there's a potential opening in the bill. Filling out the form about a child's legal status is voluntary. Schools will have to send the form to every family, but parents can choose not to return it.

Pearce has made sure it doesn't say anywhere on the form that it's voluntary. That would defeat the purpose of the legislation, he says.

If the bill passes, parents who object to it should refuse to return the form en masse.

This would be an easy gesture for parents whose legal status is beyond dispute. White parents should participate in the civil nonobedience (It's not disobedience, since giving the information is voluntary) and refuse to return the forms. For Native Americans, refusing to return the form would be a sly form of humor. "Go ahead, try and kick me out!" Hispanic families who have solid legal status should participate as well. If enough people choose to refuse, that will mean families where either the parents or children aren't here legally will not stick out if they don't return the form.

It may be that principals or teachers have the right to attach a note to the form saying it's voluntary. Educators who love and support their children should consider it a responsibility to do everything they can to render the legislation worthless.

Civil nonobedience. It doesn't have quite the ring of Thoreau's term, Civil Disobedience, but it won't land you in jail either.

NOTE: According to the bill's summary:

[The legislation] authorizes the Superintendent of Public Instruction to withhold a school district’s state aid apportionment for non-compliance with the requirements related to data collection for students who cannot demonstrate proof of legal U.S. residence.

I'm not a legislative expert, but to me, "non-compliance" means not getting the forms in the hands of families or not reporting the data to the DOE. It doesn't mean you can't tell families returning the form is voluntary.

I imagine the DOE can interpret "non-compliance" however it wants and put the screws to districts that inform families of their right not to participate. But if, say, a Democrat is elected Ed Supe, it seems the decision is up to him or her how to enforce this part of the legislation. Yet another reason to work for whichever Dem survives the primary.

And either way, it doesn't stop parents from mounting their own "choose to refuse" campaign.