Catholic Diocese Apologizes After 7th Grader Punished for Speaking Native American Language in School
- Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:23am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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Seventh-grader Miranda Washinawatok was suspended from a basketball game after speaking several phrases in her family's Native American language to her friends during class.
The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, Wis. has apologized to a seventh-grade student who was punished by a local Catholic school after telling her friends “I love you” in the language of her family’s Native American tribe, but the girl’s mother still wants her teacher fired.
Miranda Washinawatok, a student at Sacred Heart Catholic School, said she was reprimanded by her teacher, Julie Gurta, and later suspended from a basketball game for saying Menominee phrases meaning “Hello,“ ”I love you“ and ”thank you” to two of her friends in class Jan. 19.
“She sort of threw her hands down on her desk and said don’t be talking like that. How would you like it if I started talking Polish?” Miranda told Green Bay NBC affiliate WBGA-TV of Gurta’s reaction.
Miranda’s mother, Tanaes Washinawatok, was outraged at the teacher’s response, and has spent the last month meeting with school and diocese officials, the Associated Press reported. She said it’s a delicate issue because tribe members used to get beaten for speaking in their native tongue in school — a reason they’re losing the language.
In a Feb. 22 letter to Tanaes Washinawatok, Gurta said she was not trying to single out Miranda or the Menominee language, but that Miranda had acted disrespectfully several times that day and on other occasions.
“Unfortunately, the actions of your daughter were not brought to your attention as quickly as they should have been, and for this I apologize,” Gurta wrote.
But Washinawatok, who described Gurta as being insensitive and having an “arrogant, narrow-minded way of teaching,” according to the AP, said she plans to ask the diocese to fire her.
“I don’t want this to happen to another family or another student,” Washinawatok said.
Joseph Bound, director of education for the diocese, said in a Feb. 22 letter to the Washinawatok family that the events that happened were never meant to be insensitive to the Menominee tribe but acknowledged a need for staff cultural sensitivity training.
“We ask for your forgiveness for our actions that have inflicted heartache, pain and anger to all those who have felt these emotions over the past several weeks,” Bound wrote, according to the Green Bay Press Gazette. “It is our hope that with this greater awareness, we can begin to repair any harm that has been caused and to be able to build new and improved relationships.”
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Comments (89)
cessna152
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 1:31pmPrivate schools punish kids for having morals, praying and having an honest opinion. This is a private school and can do what they want…why is it okay for public schools to do what they want? However, a private school does the same and they are ridiculed and chastised/demonized.
Report Post »BarackStalin
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 2:43pmThe constitution guarantees freedom of speech. It doesn’t guarantee freedom of only English.
You can make the private school argument, but they would need to have some posted rule instead of just something the teacher made up on the fly.
Since virtually all hispanics are Catholic, I guarantee there is no such rule.
This teacher was just being cranky, and she wanted to control the speech of her students for the sake of control. I don’t agree with that.
That being said, it’s no big deal. They apologized, so let’s move on. Let’s not drag her to a cage for a hate crime.
Report Post »cessna152
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 3:29pmSorry, first word supposed to be “public”.
BTW, we are trying to achieve a perfect society. It will never happen…not without Christ anyway.
Report Post »ZengaPA65
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 9:48pmThat’s what they get for sending the kid to a Catholic School.
Report Post »midwesthippie
Posted on March 3, 2012 at 2:22am…maybe glenny can have her (student) on his “show” to straighten things out. until then, this is another case of over-reaching by the religious right-wing lunatics.
Report Post »inferno
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 1:26pmI wonder what would have happened if she spoke Arabic ? For sure in public school , she would have been ignored, and because of PC, she would be protected.
Report Post »Nick84
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 3:15pmWhy shouldn’t she be allowed to? Do you want to ban all languages besides English? As long as she is just talking to other students and not doing anything like answering the teachers’ questions in a foreign language, I don’t see any problem with it. I’m curious how it would harm anyone if they spoke in Arabic…
Report Post »woebegone
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:57pmIs anyone else bothered that the teacher is quoted as saying: “…don’t be talking like that…”? If this is true, the teacher should be fired for her inability to speak English properly. Also, as much a respect the history that fuels the anger with the teacher, and in fact agree with apology; the fact remains that speaking another language with friends, colleagues, or coworkers when others in the group don’t know the language is simply rude behavior and should be corrected.
Report Post »Gumbercules
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 9:38pmMust be from the ghetto for speaking like that, and we all know what race lives in the ghetto . . . Should be fired for that fact alone and nothing else . . .
Report Post »Mathew Manhorne
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:37pmI guess all you bible thumbing religious nut cases tend to forget how it was the American Catholic church and christian churches in general that tried after the Indian Wars of the 1870‘s and 80’s to wipe the language on the Native American tribes out by punishing the children severely if they were heard speaking it in the government indorsed religious schools that they were forced to go to on the reservations. Its no different than what the communist left does in the public school system but on the other end of the scale. Organized religion and communism is all one and the same and those who by into it and deny what is right in front of them are hypocrites…
Report Post »Think_First
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:54pmI agree with everything you have said except that all organized religions are one and the same with communism. I believe that there are good and bad religions, just like people. I agree that we humans tend to justify all our actions using whatever we can find convenient to hide behind, and many times it is religion. Religion is a set of beliefs. The beliefs are not the problem. It is a tool, and that is it, to get us closer to God and help us to be stronger spiritually. The people who use their religion as a scape goat and hide behind it, perverting the truth that is pure simple and healing, are the real problem. I know you can’t get through a religious ceremony without meeting up with people, so the mean hearted religious people tend to run off people who need the healing of religion. The funny thing is they are usually the self righteous one telling everyone they are going to hell, but I feel sorry for them. Running of any of God’s children with cruelty, to make yourself more important is the sin of pride, and it is said to be the worst one. Don’t fret. They are not really any better than the rest of us, and it is not God’s fault. He has warned them over and over again not to be prideful and harm others.
Report Post »Billiam302
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:54pmI feel very sorry for you. Your hate has unbalanced you. You apparently condemn every person of faith because of the wrongs committed by a few. This is getting to be the normal track these comment sections take anymore. The little reasoned discourse soon devolves into garbage. No wonder this country is coming apart.
Report Post »db321
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 1:05pmThis sounds like an issue of Man‘s laws not God’s. We that thump the Bible do not thump it to make up laws – we thump it to promote Gods laws.
I have never read anywhere in the Bible where it was against Gods laws to demonize a person because of there language – sounds like the Teacher has a political agenda – maybe the teacher believes that Obama is going to pay for her Birth Control Pills and she is going to do her Job to demonize her own faith. After all, $30 a month savings a month makes people do weird things.
The future is going to get very confusing and interesting when Liberal’s start turning on themselves. You ain’t seen nothing yet!
Here is my Thump! – Satan is a LIAR, and a MURDERER, because Jesus Christ himself “named” him one. John 8:44
Report Post »momsense
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:36pmI think people are making too much of this— this isn’t an attack on anyone or anything. It’s expected that while in a public or even private school you will at least try to use the common language, even if you speak it poorly. You rarely hear English spoken properly today–in some places it‘s considered an attack on someone’s culture—usually those who pay no taxes yet reap the benefits of a public education. This kid was in a private Catholic school what did she expect?
Report Post »TheJeffersonian
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 1:32pmShe was punished for telling her friend she loved her in a non-English language, and that seems reasonable to you? There are no rules in place limiting which languages one can and cannot speak in school. This is a clear error by the school.
Report Post »MemphisViking
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 2:34pmHow do you know there are no rules in place? Have you read this school’s student manual?
It sounds like this teacher overreacted, but knowing kids, it‘s opening Pandora’s box to allow the students to speak openly in class in other languages. The first thing that’ll happen is the students will all learn how to curse in multiple languages.
Report Post »eric6161
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:32pmHow dare this parent tell me who can and can’t teach my child. Thank you for letting all parents everywhere know that this teacher demands discipline in her classroom but don’t think for a minute that we believe that statement of yours when you said, “I don’t want this to happen to another family or another student…” I want her fired!
You could care less about other children… you want her fired to help your ego. You feel powerless and as a little person you feel the best way to feel you have power is to hurt someone else. You… are a bully or at least a wannabe bully and you’re teaching your child to be the same way. SHAME on you.
Report Post »loveliberty83
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 1:56pmexactly this woman does not care about anyone i bet her kid was disrepectful to the teacher & they decided to get back @ her speak your language @ home & respect the teacher
Report Post »survivorseed
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 7:14pmThe hypocrisy is strong today
Report Post »Think_First
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:32pmI do not believe this is an attack on the Catholic school, just the teacher, and it may only be an over reaction because of the past. Teachers say and do stupid things, and sometimes they get baited by students who really don’t like them. This may have been the case, but still I don’t think anything that drastic needs to happen. I don’t think the teacher should be fired or the student expelled. I think they should be forced to spend more time together to reconcile their differences and learn to be more respectful to one another. Although, after enraging so many of the tribe, the teacher may decide she had better move on. This is not a simple matter. She has crossed a line she probably had no idea existed.
Report Post »dangmc
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 5:43pm@think_first: Yours is the most sensible post I’ve seen so far in response to the article here. I live in the State with more Indian Reservations than any other, and spent most of my adult life working with people from different Native American cultures and I think first of all we really need to know the whole story before rendering judgement. Did the reporter make any attempt to find out what kind of reputation does this teacher have? What about the girl? Did Ms.Morgenstern interview staff members? Other students? Parents? I have worked in the past with people who become extremely incensed when a language they don’t understand is spoken in their presence; I’ve also seen (especially with middle school students) use their native language used as a means for defying authority. If the former is the case then this teacher has no business in a multicultural classroom, if the latter then the student needs to be called to account for her behavior. More than likely, the teacher was just having a rough day and over-reacted; but having said that why didn’t the administrative staff intervene to cool things off instead of meting out punishment? Maybe the teacher should be required to apologize to the girl in front of the class, and privately to the family. Native American students WERE punished severely for speaking their native tongue in BIA schools (probably in parochial schools also) until at least the ’60s, so this must be a painful reminder to the family. No kudos to the Blaze
Report Post »Kathleen3
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:31pmThe school’s response is a perfect example of why enrollment in Catholic schools is declining. Rather than risk loosing a tuition-paying student who deserved to be reprimanded the school betrays the teacher and panders to the student and her parents.
This is the reason teachers are attacked by out of control students and why parents can not control the children they refuse to subject to discipline – in any form.
Report Post »midwesthippie
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:28pm…another victim of heavy handed catholicism. how dare a young pretty girl say “i love you” to a classmate. i guess she should have spoken in latin.
Report Post »Benjamin Abruzzo
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:21pm1st let me get this out of my system: Doo-doo-doodoodoo…. Menominee… Doo-doodoo-doo
Okay. Now, a dying language should be nurtured and maintained. However, in school, during a class that requires all communications to be teach-to-student and to be understood by everybody in the room, there can only be the agreed upon language (foriegn language class is the exception). In a Catholic school, they emphasize this.
Be glad they don’t still speak Latin… though, maybe there should be extra-curicular classes for these other languages.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:14pmWhat chaps my @ss is what American children have to put up with daily at schools, universities and colleges all across America…. the language of liberals. It’s simply un-American.
Report Post »EchoHawk
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:28pmPerhaps you should get some powder for your WHINNY A$$.
Report Post »TIME_2_END_THE_PAUL_CAMPAIGN_IN_12
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:37pmHmmmm. You must be an offended Kindergarten Teacher. Start the indoctrination early is their motto…
Report Post »conservativewoman
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:11pmThis is petty to say the least. One of the reasons Catholic students excel over public school students is because there is discipline in the classroom. The teacher stated that the child had been disrepectful several times that day. She was talking IN CLASS! And probably while the teacher was trying to instruct her students.
I teach at a Catholic preschool. When my little students misbehave, it is the parents who tell me to discipline them. They get a time-out and if the behavior is seriously disrupting, it is reported to the parents that day. If a child is allowed to be disrespectful at home, they will be disrespectful in class.
Catholic teachers have to go through several classes for child safety, reporting of abuse, diocese rules, etc… I am not allowed to even close my classroom door if it does not have a window in it, just so anyone can observe what I am doing.
Report Post »turkey13
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:21pmI only have one problem with this story and it is that the teacher didn’t make the girl get up in front of the class and repeat what she said and explain what it meant. I’m sure the teacher knew the girl was Native American. If not for the code talkers in WWII we might not have won.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:11pmI think the mother is trying to make it about which language was being spoken in class. The fact is, students are not supposed to be talking to one another while in class. That’s the way it was when I was in school, anyway. The student needs to be quiet in class and get her studies done on time. She can talk all she wants to, in any language she wants to, OUTSIDE of class.
Report Post »SoundStride
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:08pmAnd old school nun might have thought she was speaking in some devil tongue and whooped her with a ruler. Ah the good ole days.
Report Post »Plan B
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:32pmAnd you would have gotten a ruler across the knuckles
Report Post »Jackie Rogers, Jr.
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:05pmWhen I was in Catholic school, I too was punished for speaking in my native language. Unfortunately the teachers also understood English
Report Post »piper60
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:08pmgood one.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 2:03pmah, Sister BoomBoom Bernadine.
Report Post »Jackie Rogers, Jr.
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 6:03pmWell I was particularly thinking of my fifth grade teacher, Sister Francis Teresa. Or as we students who passed through her class called her, the red skull.
Report Post »Mamma Bear
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:01pmThis is a private school and well it is a Catholic school. So, if the mother is unhappy LEAVE! Maybe she can find a Native American school to put her child in. It is her right to leave and it is their right to demand that children speak in language that the teachers can understand.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:12pmI have a feeling we are going to see a lot of negative news about Catholic institutions…unless they submit to lord Obama.
Report Post »Think_First
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:23pmActually, this is a very real issue with most tribes. They do not usually have public schools on a reservation. The Catholic Schools are it. Many of them, depending on the size of the reservation, could not travel fast enough to get to the nearest public schools. They really do have to deal with this issue and the school. Most of the time the staff in these schools are also Native American Catholics, so these issues do not rear up to often, but it is a very sensitive subject. I know a man who is in his thirties who was restricted and beaten as a kindergartener for speaking his native tongue, and he had never learned English. This is a world that most of us do not know or understand, and so we may not be able to see this thing dead on. The man who was beaten at school is younger than I am, and I was never beaten at school ever, so I would say we need to be very respectful on this one.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:39pm…and suddenly the AP is the champion of Native American issues? Yea right.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:56am“the Associated Press reported” I wonder if the AP would be as interested in this story if the Catholic church was playing nicely with Obama? It’s really not much of a story.
Report Post »islamhater
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:41pmAsk yourself who owns AP and Reuters? The Rothchilds do. Believe nothing you hear on T.V. it is all lies.They also run the bank of England wich has the most gold in the world. Now ask why this story made it to be news worthy?A kid talking in class really? London/The Vatican and The District of Columbia are working together check into it..Just how many british colonies are there around the world and why? What about us how many countrys are we in? Christians and Muslems follow their faith blindly never questioning. The pope is just as evil as the jihadist and the jews all these faiths have brought more evil into this world than anything else all in the name of GOD…They are all in on the NWO bandwagon. look into it don’t just dismiss me as a crazy do some real research find the truth..
Report Post »Nemo13
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:49amI am so BORED with Catholics bending over backwards for everything. For schools, church, WATEVER… Put the RULES up so people understand CLEARLY what is required. That way you don’t have to keep apologizing for everything under the sun. Be firm on the rules so people understand and cannot come back later and cry. If you don’t like it, goes elsewhere. If you want to speak in native indian tounge, go to a native indian school and talk it up.
Report Post »KevINtampa
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:48amIt’s a private school. If she is that upset that her child was reprimanded for talking during instruction she can remove her from the school. If she feels that talking in an Indian language means she is immune to the rules of the room, place her in a school that allows it. It’s that simple.
Report Post »SeeingThingsClearly
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:47am:( The way the native languages are dying out…they need to be used whenever they can. osiyo, gvgeyvi, wado…etc in whatever first nations language.
Report Post »The_Jerk
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:45amExpel the Native American. It’s a private school.
Report Post »yanki161
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:41amIf only it had been Spanish….
Report Post »cranberry
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:38amIf this teacher has a problem with this, what else is she backwards and ignorant about? Makes you wonder. Some people should not be teaching our kids. They should be handing out burgers at a drive in.
Report Post »otoko
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:53amI don’t think so much as this being a racist thing as much as a teacher jumping to conclusions. Thinking the child was being smart and liping off. Being by-lingual and having children of mixed race I know what the teacher feels. She just went about it the wrong way, WAY over the top.
Report Post »DIVINEPROVIDENCE1776
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:37amUgh. The Catholic Diocese were acting like fascists, but now that they apologize the mother is acting like a fascist by not accepting it and moving on. Our country has lost it’s mind, common sense, and tolerance. Repeating evil history in such a way will end in darkness for America. Wake up people on both sides.
Report Post »PaxInVeritate
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 12:21pmIt was not the Catholic Diocese, but a single teacher. Pray for healing and growth in those involved.
Report Post »CJohnWest
Posted on March 2, 2012 at 11:36amI think it is very cool she can speak the native language, and maybe there are a few occasions in a school setting to speak it, but in a classroom setting secret languages to use and snicker at teachers can get on the nerves and it seems, by the girls own words, the case here. Playgrounds, lunchrooms, hallways it would be fine to talk whatever you want, but “under the bell” you should stay on task, so if you are speaking another language it should be in an educational setting. Not that I know anything about education, just talking about it gives me anxiety problems. But I bet this will be exaggerated.
Report Post »What if a chatholic child in a public school started speaking verse in latin with their friends, they would be suspended most assuredly; just for context.