Council of Asian Pacific Americans (CAPA)

OCA URGES JUSTICE FOR IOWA STUDENT IN ENGLISH PROFICIENCY CASE

Washington, DC - OCA calls on the Storm Lake School District in Iowa to expunge the disciplinary actions placed on Lori Phanachone, an honors student born and raised in the United States, for refusing to take an English proficiency test mandated because she speaks Lao in her home.  

 

Phanachone, a second-generation Laotian American, was labeled an ELL after she declared that she spoke Lao primarily at home.  Due to this designation, the school district annually tested her English proficiency even though Phanachone is a member of the National Honor Society and ranks seventh in her senior class.  When she boycotted the test during her senior year, calling it demeaning and racist, she was suspended for 3 days and threatened with the loss of National Honor Society membership and exclusion from school activities. Phanachone said that her college scholarships—up to $86,000 at one university—have been threatened by her suspension.

 

“What the Storm Lake School District is doing to Ms. Phanachone is wrong,” said OCA Executive Director George Wu. “The fact that she has a 3.9 GPA and has excelled in her classes, including English, should speak for itself.”  

 

OCA urges the Storm Lake School District to expunge any disciplinary actions in regards to Phanachone.  We also ask for the school district to review their policies and reclassify students such as Lori, especially from immigrant families, if appropriate, as English proficient.  

 

 Founded in 1973 as the Organization of Chinese Americans, OCA is a national organization with over 81 chapters and affiliates dedicated to advancing the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans. For more information, visit www.ocanational.org.

AANAPISI Program:

Dear OCA Chapters and Members,

Recently, Congress reauthorized the Higher Education Act and permanently established the *Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions* (AANAPISI) program, which, similar to other minority serving institutions programs, provides grants to colleges and universities that serve considerable numbers of low income students, particularly underserved Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).

We are asking OCA chapters and members to do the following in order to gain support for this important issue in the House of Representatives.

1) *CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE* by sending a letter (Word document entitled ‘CongressmanTemplate’) and Representative Wu's ‘Dear Colleague’ letter attached to this email (Word document entitled ‘DearColleague’). To find your House representative, please refer to: http://www.house.gov/

Template Letter for Congressman - http://www.ocanational.org/images/stories/docscenter/congressmantemplate.doc

(Please make sure to include the ‘Dear Colleague’ letter when writing your representative) Representative Wu's 'Dear Colleague' letter - http://www.ocanational.org/images/stories/docscenter/dearcolleague.doc

2) *CONTACT COLLEGES* that are eligible for the funding (...pdf file entitled 'Institutions’), and have them actively request for these funds themselves. Institutions - http://www.ocanational.org/images/stories/docscenter/institutions.pdf

We ask that you contact your Representative with the letters provided by Monday, March 30, 2009. The deadline for Representatives to sign-on is *Tuesday, March 31, 2009*.

Please submit to Douglas Lee at dlee@ocanational.org any action you or your chapter conducts.

Thanks,

OCA National Center.