Sean Arce: “Lines of communication are totally down”

by David Safier

The two sides in the local battle over Ethnic Studies and Mexican Americans Studies may be natural adversaries, but there is no reason they should be natural enemies. The sides have genuine disagreements about aspects of Ethnic Studies, but Pedicone and Stegeman support the program's existence, unlike the virulently anti-public education, anti-Hispanic forces led by Tom Horne and John Huppenthal. The two sides share common ground which can be used to forge agreements.

An adversarial relationship can be a healthy thing. Open, even contentious discussion and debate can reveal weaknesses in the positions on both sides and lead to refinements and improvements. But for that to happen, a level of trust and communication has to be maintained. It looks to me like trust and communication have broken down here.

The depth of the communication problem struck me when the Save Ethnic Studies group put out a Media Release complaining Pedicone had refused the group's offer to co-host the public forum Pedicone recommended. After I read the release, I spoke with Deya Nevarez, Project Director of Save Ethnic Studies. She told me she learned of Pedicone's rejection not in a phone call to SES or in a formal statement issued through TUSD, but in remarks he made in a KGUN news story. That's the way the two sides are communicating these days — through news interviews and op eds. That's point scoring, not communication. No good can come of that.

I talked with Sean Arce, director of MAS, to get his take on the communication situation. He told me there "hasn't been a real, frank, honest discussion" about the growing Ethnic Studies controversy between him and Pedicone or others in the district administration for quite awhile. "Lines of communication are totally down," he said.

Though I'm sure there is shared blame here, I lay the communication problem at Pedicone's feet. He's the top guy, the district superintendent. Arce and others in MAS answer to him. It's Pedicone's job to make sure people within the district understand his position, and he needs to make an honest attempt to understand theirs. Especially in a situation as volatile as this, indirection simply doesn't work. It leaves both sides reading tea leaves, trying to infer the other's intentions and trying to second guess what the other side is planning to do next. Given the level of distrust and everyone's desire to score points in the media, misunderstandings and over-reactions are inevitable.

Somewhere, sometime, people representing both sides of the local battle over Ethnic Studies are going to have to sit down and hash things out face to face, beyond the glare of the media spotlight, if they hope to resolve the situation in a way that doesn't leave permanent wounds in the relationship between TUSD and the Latino community. I hope there's still a way for that to happen.