12-Year-Old Verbally Attacked By Teacher for Wearing Mexican Soccer Jersey

One of my friends is running the World Cup bracket at her office, and anyone who follows soccer ("football" to the rest of the world) won't be surprised that none of her co-workers bet on the United States to take it all. I mean, we only tied with England because their goalie dropped the ball. So the World Cup is a good time for Americans to cheer on a team with a bigger stake in the games, maybe get in touch with their heritage and root for the land of their ancestors. If I were more of a sports fan, that would probably leave me backing Italy. If I did, nobody would bat an eye.

But if I happened to be a 12-year-old American-born girl supporting Mexico, I might have to worry about being attacked by my middle school teacher for being illegally in the country, as Prerna Lal writes on Race in America. Coral Avilez, a seventh-grader in California, decided to wear a Mexican soccer jersey in anticipation of the Mexico-South Africa game that day. Reportedly, her teacher asked her if she supported Mexico, then demanded, "Then what are you doing in my country?" The teacher then attacked, "people like you make me pay higher taxes and make my insurance rate go up." Ahem ... "people like you"? American-born citizens, she means?

The 12-year-old ran out of the classroom in tears, as you would expect a child to do.

The Vice President of the local League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) says that this isn't the first such instance of blatant racism and xenophobia in the classroom, but that students are usually to intimidated to complain. The girl was further harassed after the incident by school officials who interrogated her and barred her mother from taking her home until she had signed something (what is unclear). The next week, when Coral didn't want to go to class, she was told she could read in the principal's office or pick up trash with the janitor. She felt so uncomfortable around the principal, she opted for garbage duty.

Some schools do an amazing job exposing students to different cultures. They encourage them to bring in food from their heritage for show and tell and celebrate the diversity of America. Yet it can also promote intolerance and hatred to an extremely impressionable audience. If Coral had shown up to class supporting the other team with a South African jersey, it's a safe bet that nobody would have criticized her choice of attire. She deserves the same right to be proud of her heritage as any other student.

The teacher has apologized to the class, but Coral and her mother are seeking disciplinary action. It's not enough to say sorry: the damage to a young girl has already been done. And making such racist, xenophobic remarks to a child in the classroom raises questions about whether the teacher belongs around young students at all; it's especially concerning that there might have been prior unreported incidents. Support Coral by telling the principal of Big Bear Middle School to take disciplinary action against the teacher in question and investigate intolerance in the school.

Photo credit: Shine2010