Ethnic Studies rift spinning out of control

by David Safier

The rift between TUSD and the Save Ethnic Studies group is growing, and the most recent events lead me to question Superintendent Pedicone's leadership skills. He stepped into a contentious situation when he took over the District and has made misstep after misstep, combining a misreading of the situation with statements which have wavered from weak to openly antagonistic to disingenuously conciliatory.

If that first paragraph doesn't sound the more even-handed tone I like to use when I write about the MAS situation — a tone I try to adopt even when I'm clearly taking the side of the MAS supporters — it's because I've seen too many mistakes on the part of both Pedicone and Board President Stegeman to think they have anything like a handle on the situation. I won't try to second-guess their intentions, but their actions are making an already difficult situation far, far worse.

Here's the latest. At the Board-meeting-of-the-100-police, Pedicone suggested the electives resolution should be tabled and there should be a public forum discussing the issue. Good idea, I thought. The Save Ethnic Studies group asked to participate in the planning and implementation of the forum. For Pedicone to agree would be fraught with peril but could actually create a bit of dialogue and harmony amid all the disagreements. It would be a worthwhile risk. For him to blow SES off would be a sure recipe for failure of the forum.

Pedicone blew SES off. Not in a formal, public statement, but in a KGUN news story, as if SES didn't deserve a direct reply. The video is at the bottom of the post (if I can get it to work).

According to Deya Nevarez, SES's Project Director, the news story is the first and only place she learned Pedicone had rejected their offer.

If you want to take an already tense relationship and bump the level of distrust up another notch — if you want to make yourself look more and more like Tom Horne and John Huppenthal — that's the way to do it.

In the KGUN story, Pedicone made an incomprehensible statement about why SES shouldn't participate in setting up the forum because of its lawsuit.

Then the reporter said Pedicone planned to include the MAS Advisory Board, community leaders and the UA's Civility Project in the forum. However, planning to do something and doing it are different things. Nevarez told me, so far as she knew, Pedicone had not contacted the MAS Advisory Board. Saying he wants to work with "community leaders" without giving a single name sounds like he hasn't moved on that either. And involving the Civility Project sounds noble, but it reads like a slap in the face toward all those "uncivil" students and community members who attended the last few Board meetings.

In the news interview, Pedicone said he wanted to expand the forum into a discussion of SB1070 and tensions in the community as well as the MAS controversy. That sounds to me like he wants to duck the MAS problem by diverting the discussion. Those items would come up in any forum on MAS. They don't need to be included as separate items for discussion.

From what I have seen as this controversy has progressed, Pedicone is a weak, tone deaf Superintendent who has no historical understanding of Tucson's active, intelligent and experienced Latino community and its leaders. He appears to have no idea how to handle this delicate and contentious situation. He wavers from silence — does anyone know how he feels about the electives resolution or the wisdom of Stegeman proposing it when he did? — to insults — his op ed where his use of the "outside agitators are stirring up our children" theme simultaneously disrespected the students and accused unnamed community members of using their beloved children as unwitting pawns — to making general, unsubstantiated statements in an attempt to sound like the voice of reason — the vaguely conciliatory statements he made in the KGUN story. All of this creates greater feelings of distrust among people fighting to preserve the MAS program. And when you combine the expected strenuous disagreements with increasing levels of distrust, things can only get worse.

Things have reached a point where Pedicone and Stegeman are becoming less and less distinguishable from Horne and Huppenthal, and I put the blame on Pedicone and Stegeman's shoulders. The pro-MAS groups are playing their expected roles, given the hand they have been dealt. TUSD has failed to show mature, thoughtful, positive leadership during this difficult situation.