(VIDEO) TUSD Tragedy: 5 years later, where are they now?

The TUSD Tragedy — Save Ethnic Studies from Three Sonorans on Vimeo.

5 years ago this week, on May 3rd, 2011, the events now known as the TUSD Tragedy took place which you can see in the video above. Superintendent John Pedicone somehow how gained the power to give orders to police, 7 women were arrested, and outside police were throwing students and their parents on the street, bloodying them and leaving gravel still embedded within them years later.

TUSD was changed forever… innocence was lost as the board room became a militarized zone. In less than a year one board member would suddenly pass away, a new board member appointed, and Mexican American Studies would be banned. Added to this was a directive sent out by TUSD legal counsel Martha Durkin to ban 7 books from TUSD which led to the censorship monitors entering the MAS classrooms to take the books away in boxes actually labelled “banned books,” leaving the bookshelves empty as students watched with tears in their eyes.

The following year the “pro-MAS” candidate Kristel Foster ran for the TUSD board. During her election she learned that to win, she would have to change her tone with MAS and the person who banned it, John Pedicone. Foster would go on the radio to double-down on getting caught saying at a forum that she would have also voted to kill MAS if she was on the board.

The month after John Pedicone killed MAS and allowed books to be banned, he was awarded a Ben’s Bells.

And now, 5 years later, where are these three people? Getting more awards as MAS remains banned, Federal Desegregation Orders remain ignored after 40 years…

… and the “pro-MAS” candidate Kristel Foster? She is now on the TUSD board, running for re-election, and is now the darling of the Democratic Party for choosing to be on the white side of history.